[GinaIsWild]

Yesterday Ken Hull and I went to Vermont to check out some native orchids and take some pictures. When we were heading down the dirt road back to where Ken had parked his car, I stopped to check out some tiger swallowtail butterflies that were drinking up minerals on the road.

After a minute I heard some minor scratching around on the far bank of the nearby ditch, and saw a somewhat large garter snake with the back hindquarter of a toad in it's mouth, with the rest of the toad waving around trying to get free. I decided that this would make a good photo op, so started trying to get pictures of the two. After I took a few pictures, the toad sort of looked at me as if to say 'Hey buddy, could you lend me a hand?' I said 'okay', and found a forked stick and held the snake to the ground so that it couldn't slither away.

I took some more pictures and then picked up another small stick and commenced to smack the snake on the head until it decided that the toad was no longer interesting... it took a good 20 seconds before the snake could spit out the toad's leg, and after the toad slid down the bank (with it's leg hanging sort of limply behind it), the toad sat there collecting itself for a few minutes without moving.

Since the toad was no longer in any danger and the snake was lunging at me in anger/fear, I once again turned to snap some pics of the widely-opened snake mouth. After the toad hopped far away I pulled up the stick and let the snake head off in the other direction. I didn't think that from the size of the toad and how small the snake's mouth was that it was ever going to get it all inside, and since I sort of like toads (they are unassuming and eat lots of flying bugs that can bite me and draw blood) I decided in favor of the toad. I don't have anything against snakes in particular,.....


garter snake with toad somewhat inside it's mouth


toad free and considering it's very good fortune


one very unhappy snake


one very extremely upset snake; nice view of teeth and whatever is inside a snake's throat

... and no, my camera doesn't have a video function, so no images on youtube of animal struggles or me smacking the snake over the head with the stick (PETA would have a field day with that )