Shocking sight as deadly poisonous vine snake eats green snake alive
© Richard MckibbinShocking sight as deadly poisonous vine snake eats green snake alive
The impressively camouflaged vine snake, at times barely visible due to its tree-like markings, gorged on a harmless Eastern natal green snake for a whole half hour.

At first, the green snake coils its thin body around its attacker in a vain attempt to escape.

But as the little serpent succumbs to the vine snake's deadly poison, the predator is shown wrapping its girth around its prey to gobble it down - head first.

The awesome sighting was captured by photographer Richard Mckibbin while he was out with a butterfly walk group on October 15 at the Zimbali Coastal Resort, South Africa.

Mr Mckibbin, 37, from Umhlanga Rocks, South Africa, said: "It was incredibly exciting to see. I see these vine snakes often, but I have never seen anything like this.

"Only a handful of species in South Africa actively hunt out other snakes. Even though this is known to occur, it is very rarely witnessed, especially in this species.

"This made this such an incredible sighting.

"We were probably about four yards away from it."

Mr Mckibbin says he had mixed feelings about witnessing the kill
Mr Mckibbin says he had mixed feelings about witnessing the kill
Mr Mckibbin, who runs his tour guide and conservation company The LionHeart Experience with wife Candy, says they only spotted the moment after catching sight of the victim's flailing bright green body.

Mr Mckibbin said: "One of the participants on the walk spotted the movement of a bright green snake, only to see that it had just been grabbed by the cryptically camouflaged vine snake.

"The green snake must have been moving through the trees and did not notice the predator lying in wait.

"It wrapped around the vine snake in a feeble attempt at defence and was writhing around, but it was going nowhere.

"We saw the vine snake chewing repeatedly on the green snake to poison it whilst attempting to start ingesting the snake's head and the beginning of its body.

"Within a few moments the green snake's movements stopped, and eventually stopped completely."

"The vine snake began to move its jaws side to side to ingest the body of its prey.

"It did have a little hiccup on the way when nature offered some salad in the form of a frustratingly placed leaf.

"After getting a mouthful of 'lettuce' two or three times over and swinging away in disgust, it managed to eat its meal by just getting the 'green' it wanted."

The animal enthusiast says the thorny location made the event particularly difficult to shoot - not least due to the stealthy vine snake's incredible camouflage.

Richard, who has been photographing wildlife for 20 years, said: said: "These snakes have some of the best camouflage in the snake kingdom, and are near impossible to spot when lying motionless in the branches.