Snakes alive: Pythons make meals of exploding wallaby populations in Far North Queensland
SNAKES are making a feast of an exploding wallaby population in a Far North Queensland town as these amazing pictures of one hungry reptile show.
SNAKES are making a feast of an exploding wallaby population in a Far North Queensland town.
Residents of Mission Beach, near Cairns, are capturing an increasing number of scrub pythons snacking on their fellow natives as the wallaby population in the region booms.
Resident Neil Gallie snapped a series of photographs of a large scrub python, estimated to be about 4.6m long, swallowing a large agile wallaby near his home last week and shared them with The Cairns Post.
“On Boxing Day evening, at around 10.30pm, I heard what sounded like something being chased up the lawn,’’ he said.
“When I went outside, I saw a wallaby leaping around and falling to the ground.
“I knew what had happened.”
Mission Beach residents have been dealing with an explosion in numbers of wallabies for several months.
The Queensland Government has ordered a cull of more than 1500 of the marsupials.
Mr Gallie suggested large pythons in the beachside community had been assisting with the cull.
“There are quite a few big snakes around here, so I would say this is not the first occasion,’’ he said.