A Snake Fishes for Its Prey
Netlore Archive: Emailed image shows a very large snake (evidently a python) pulling its prey (evidently a wallaby, though some have labeled it a 'cow') out of a body of water in Western Australia
Description: Emailed image
Circulating since: 2005
Status: Authentic / Mislabeled
Analysis: See below
Email example contributed by Sean D., 24 April 2007:
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FW: The Cow and the Snake This is a snake pulling a cow out of the water. Talk about a man eater! This picture is from Western Australia. Take a careful look at this picture; see the size of the snake and the Cow being pulled out of the water.  Click to Enlarge |
Comments: This is, without a doubt, one of the more astounding feats of angling ever captured on film. 
Notwithstanding the fact that it has been mislabeled above (the snake's prey is clearly not a "cow" -- see detail at right), there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this photo, which has circulated online and generated a good deal of discussion since 2005.
The consensus is that the snake is a python -- probably an olive python, common to Western Australia -- and its catch is a young wallaby which was probably already dead when the python spotted it.
When the image was posted on the ABC Far North Queensland Website in July 2005, a member named Jody took credit for it in a Guestbook entry and provided a bit more information about it:
I hope you enjoyed the photo that we took recently while hiking in a gorge in northern Western Australia. The python was not able to lift the wallaby after trying for approximately one hour. We left him catching his breath on a rock ledge above the pool.
Kimberley Fishing
ABC Far North Queensland, 8 July 2005Olive Python
Currumbin Wildlife SanctuaryA Snake Could Eat Your Pet
AAP, 29 November 2006
Last updated: 05/10/07
