Two large snakes battling it out on a Sunshine Coast roof shows breeding season has made an early start, a local expert says.
As soon as snake wrangler Dan Rumsey got the call about two carpet pythons curled up and writhing around on a Yaroomba roof, he knew exactly what they were doing.
“I thought straight away that they’d be combatting snakes,” he said.
“When I got there, the snakes had actually fallen down from a roof terrace and they were still going through their ritualised combat on the ground.
“It was pretty cool to see for the start of the snake season.”
Language warning: watch the combatting snakes in the Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 video below.
Mr Rumsey, who is part of the Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 team, said the behaviour was extremely common and not exclusive to carpet pythons.
“Other reptiles and snake species, such as red-bellied black snakes, do it too,” he said.
“It’s just the males trying to assert a little bit of dominance and while it is quite ritualised, they don’t necessarily hurt each other.
“It’s all about who’s the strongest and trying to exhaust the submissive male. Then the dominant male should go off and start mating with the females in that territory.
“When they’re in that mode, it’s like they are in a trance. You can be watching and standing right nearby and they will just keep going, it’s really cool to watch.
“Sometimes they can be in combat for up to an hour – anything past that and they’re obviously going to be fairly exhausted.”
With all the action in their backyard, he said the women at the property were both fascinated and confused over the behaviour.
“There were about six ladies watching, and they filmed a video too,” he said.
“They were very excited and a bit shocked, but they didn’t really know what was happening, so I explained the whole process.
“They loved watching the fight go down … it’s nice for people to be able to experience that kind of thing.”
He explained how mating between a male and female python was more gentle than the males fighting.
“They will lay on top of or next to each other with their tales interlocked and the male will shiver its body,” he said.
“Pythons have these spurs which are like the remnants of what their legs would have been. They will tickle those spurs along the back of the female to stimulate her into mating, but it doesn’t look anywhere near as vigorous as male-to-male combat.”
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Shortly after Mr Rumsey arrived, the pythons naturally separated. He then placed them into separate bags and released them in the closest appropriate bushland.
With snake breeding season usually kicking off around September, he said the early start to the season came down to a few factors.
“It’s obviously been quite warm and dry so reptile activity has started fairly early,” he said.
“It’s all to do with day length, temperature and humidity, and all these things combined.
“No doubt there will be lots of this kind of behaviour – combatting, mating and snakes on the move. We’re going to be very very busy now I imagine.”
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He gave some tips for heading into snake season.
“Just follow the normal advice, make sure you garden is nice and clear and the grass is mowed,” he said.
“Do anything to deter snakes from taking up residency in your backyard.
“The most important thing and easiest way to be safe around snakes is to not go near them. Don’t ever try to catch them or kill them, because that’s where majority of bites will come from.
“They don’t really want to interact with humans at all, they want to get away from us. If you want the snake removed, you can call your local snake catcher.”
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