A Scaled Battle: Cross-marked sand snake eats Yellow-throated plated lizard

26 November

General

On a spring morning, as the day was warming up, the Grootbos conservation team were out in the field, scouting for new flowering bulbs when they stumbled upon a Cross-marked sand snake (CS snake) displaying strange behaviour.

CS snakes tend to be more skittish and would rather flee than fight when a human enters its territory. In this case, our legless friend was less bothered with our conservation team’s presence and more focused on potential brunch.

The CS snake had gotten the upper hand or rather tail on a Yellow-throated plated lizard (YP lizard) and it seemed our four-legged friend’s luck had run out. The CS snake’s bite is venomous to its prey - harmless to humans. 

It appears that the YP lizard’s tail had come off, most likely during the struggle to escape. The loss of its tail serves as a biological survival method. As a cold-blooded creature, the tail will still be moving once detached and serve as a distraction, - allowing a second of saving grace for the lizard. Unfortunately, this escape tactic did not work on the CS snake. 

It was a spectacular sighting for our conservation team to witness, as neither of these reptiles ever hang around long enough to be thoroughly observed. Maybe next time we might see a few spring bulbs flowering before getting distracted...again.

A big thanks to Mike Fabricius for the incredible photos.