{"id":318179,"date":"2025-10-20T09:07:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/318179\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:07:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:07:24","slug":"farmer-captures-never-before-seen-snake-behaviour-on-aussie-property-exceedingly-rare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/318179\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmer captures never-before-seen snake behaviour on Aussie property: \u2018Exceedingly rare\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

For over 30 years, a South Australian<\/a> farmer has conducted surveys of the unique wildlife that lives on her family\u2019s 5,000-acre property in the Coorong, south of Adelaide.<\/p>\n

Then, on the weekend, Sally Grundy witnessed an incredible animal behaviour that experts believe has never been captured on camera before \u2013 a tiger snake hunting for fish in saltwater.<\/p>\n

Grundy was walking along the edge of a barrage off Ewe Island, which is part of Mundoo Island Station<\/a>, a cattle property with vast reserves set aside for critically endangered migratory birds, including the far-eastern curlew, curlew sandpiper and orange-bellied parrot. She\u2019s used to seeing the rare and unusual, but she describes the snake encounter as completely \u201cextraordinary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Initially, it appeared as if the snake was caught in the rocks. \u201cIt was doing a lot of tumble-turning and flipping, but we could not see its head, only its body and tail\u201d, Grundy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought maybe it was wedged between rocks and stuck there, but then it went out into deeper water and disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together with a small group of bird survey volunteers, they waited for five minutes for the snake to reappear, confused by the strange behaviour, and hoping it wasn’t injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt suddenly popped up out of the water with the fish in its mouth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong>Call to ban controversial fishing gear to protect 500kg underwater giant<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

This is the moment a tiger snake stretched its neck out of the water with a fish in its mouth. Source: Sally Grundy\/Mundoo Island Station<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The snake then carried the fish to the shallows and consumed it. Source: Sally Grundy\/Mundoo Island Station<\/p>\n

\"Experts<\/p>\n

Experts say it’s unusual to see a tiger snake hunting in salt water. Source: Sally Grundy\/Mundoo Island Station<\/p>\n

Snake experts dub snake fish hunting images a ‘real coup’<\/p>\n

The vision is some of the most exciting snake experts have seen since a python was filmed eating a platypus <\/a>in a Queensland creek last year.<\/p>\n

The Australian Herpetological Society confirmed its common knowledge that tiger snakes eat fish, but it was remarkable to witness one in the water hunting for prey. Although other species, like red-bellied black snakes, have been observed on occasion hunting in freshwater for carp.<\/a><\/p>\n

The group’s president, Chris Williams, said it was a \u201creal coup\u201d for Grundy to capture the behaviour, particularly in saltwater, and her images have created \u201ca stir\u201d in the reptile community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aware that these things happen, but it\u2019s exceedingly rare to capture so many great images,\u201d he told Yahoo, noting he\u2019s unaware of anyone photographing it before.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The snake was seen fishing on the barrage leading towards Ewe Island. Source: Google Earth<\/p>\n

Farmer watches as tiger snake swallows prey<\/p>\n

Mundoo Island Station is home to at least three types of snake, red-bellies, browns and tigers. The latter two can vary a lot in colour, and so Grundy was initially unsure which species she was watching.<\/p>\n

She began snapping photos the moment the snake emerged from the water, with its neck upright, and a small fish in its mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extraordinary. I\u2019ve watched snakes for so many years, but I\u2019ve never seen anything like that,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen snakes eating frogs, but never seen one actively fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The snake then carried the fish in its mouth to some rocks in the shallows, where it swallowed its prey. It then vanished under the water again, and Grundy and her team continued on with their bird survey.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

After the snake finished eating the fish, it swam away. Source: Sally Grundy\/Mundoo Island Station<\/p>\n

Love Australia’s weird and wonderful environment? \ud83d\udc0a\ud83e\udd98\ud83d\ude33 Get our <\/strong>new newsletter<\/strong><\/a> showcasing the week\u2019s best stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For over 30 years, a South Australian farmer has conducted surveys of the unique wildlife that lives on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":318180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159752,159751,159749,159,27891,159750,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-318179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ewe-island","9":"tag-island-station","10":"tag-sally-grundy","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-snake","13":"tag-tiger-snake","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115405707806374124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}