Fw: Kookaburra eating a snake - series of photos.

[martin butterfield <>]

Denis

The snake being longer than the outside of the bird does't mean the snake is longer than the inside.  The intestine of most animals is coiled up within the space so that (generalising from the example from Wikipeda) the small intestine of an adult human is about 4x the person's height.  From my memory of helping my dad dress chooks much the same ratio applied to them.

A great series of photos and thanks for bringing them to the lines attention

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 10:43 PM, Denis Wilson <> wrote:

Hi Folks

 

Have a look at this series of photos of a Kookaburra eating a Snake.

They are published on the Birds in Backyards forum - from the Museum of Australia (Sydney)

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/messages.cfm?threadid=6842E5DF-F05D-783B-AFF913FACC002960

 

They were taken by a bird watcher in WA - they are not my photos.

 

Consider this:

1. First it had to catch and kill the snake.
2. Once it had done that it had to re-arrange it, so as to get it head first, in its beak.
3. Then it has to start swallowing it (whole).
4. You will note in the early photos that the snake is considerably longer than the Kookaburra.
5. Does it have to wait to partially digest the Snake, before it can finish its mean? I don't know.

 

Cheers

 

Denis
www.peonyden.blogspot.com