Caught on camera in Australia: Snake devouring a snake; another swallowed a kangaroo

Forget the wallaby, koala, or kangaroo. The national mascot of Australia should be the snake. Period.

In January, an Australian returned home to find a snake trapped in a mousetrap, and barely two weeks later, news outlets from Australia reported a snake devouring another snake.

The latest reptilian news emerging from Down Under promises not to disappoint. This time, it involves:

1) A snake swallowing a kangaroo whole, and

2) A snake eating one of its own - yet again.

In the first incident, a 5-metre-long python was filmed contorting its body, trying to accommodate a lifeless kangaroo at a family caravan park in Queensland.

Believed to be an amethystine python - one of the largest snakes in the world - the python was biting more than it could chew, to the horror of a Helen Smart, who filmed the video on Feb 16, the Daily Mail reported.

Furthur down south in Clarendon, near Adelaide, a cannibalistic eastern brown snake was filmed eating another of its kind on Feb 19.

According to the Daily Mail, snake catcher Steven Broadstock had trouble separating the victorious brown snake from its prey.

Eastern brown snakes make up 95 per cent of snake calls in South Australia, Steven said.

This reptile is considered the world's second most venomous land snake, and is native to Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.

grongloh@sph.com.sg