Photo: Ed Means
Photographer Ed Means caught the wild dining experience on camera while trying to get a photo of a green heron on a pier in Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas.
“I heard a ruckus in the water and the green heron took off. And then I noticed something moving on the green mat of algae and river greenery in the middle of the river,” Meanstold news stationKSAT.
He added, “It was too far away for me to see what I was looking at until I looked at it through my 500 mm camera lens.”
Ed Means
When Means looked through this ultra-telephoto lens, he spotted a diamondback water snake unhinging its jaw and opening its mouth wide to swallow a large fish whole above the water.
The photographer took several snaps of the snake wolfing down its meal from different angles. One photo shows the snake from the front view. The reptile is looking toward the camera with the fish in its mouth. Other pictures show the snake from the side as it widens its jaw to swallow the fish whole.
“It was an amazing sight — something I had never seen before,” Means said. “It was quite dramatic watching this snake slowly swallow this fish. It would seem that the fish would be too big for this snake but snakes are able to dislocate/unhinge their jaws to allow for bigger prey.”
According to theFlorida Museum, the diamondback water snakes can grow up to 30-60 inches in length, are non-venomous, and are often found in freshwater habitats.
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source: people.com
