A Hunting Snake

[Kiran Poonacha]

Found this rat snake hunting a large snake one cloudy morning. the toed puffed up so that the sanke would not be able to swallow it, but the razor sharp teeth of the snake burst open the toed and the sanke had a happy meal.

Canon 40D + 500mm

Spec: 1/500, F 7.1, -1/3, ISO 800.

[Morkel Erasmus]

love the intensity here and the DOF - low angle takes it over the top! nature at its rawest and cruelest.

[Steve Canuel]

I like the low angle and the DOF. Interesting to see how the snake overcame the toad's defenses.

[Harshad Barve]

I am scared , too good

Harshad

[Sabyasachi Patra]

It is not apparent that it is a toad. Would like to see an image before the toad is burst. Where was it clicked?

[Robert Amoruso]

Powerful head-on view Kiran. You captured the graphic nature of this snake's eating very well.

[Stu Bowie]

Superb DOF, and getting down to the snakes level makes this work so well. Seems like the snake has his eye on you too.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Thank you all for your kind word.

Sadyasachi, Its a toad for sure you can see the skin and legs clearly. I dont have the image with the toad puffed, when I found the snake the toad was in the puffed form but by the time I got down and set myself the toad had already burst. this was at a lake bed on the outskrits of Bangalore. This was when I was studying the Short Toed Snake Eagles hunting behavior I happened to witness it. keep a eye on my webpage for the other image from the series.