News & Events

An image has emerged of a carpet python that died while trying to kill and eat a cane toad on Australia’s east coast.

The gruesome scene was discovered in a backyard at Kingscliff in northern New South Wales.

Resident Peter Hall said the snake kept rodents in check.

“So sad, so sorry, this was the python that’s been living in our garden for ages,” he said on social media.

“It was a beautiful, graceful animal.

“It’s the second one we’ve seen die like this after coming in contact with cane toad toxin.”

Mr Hall said he shared the picture to encourage people to keep killing cane toads.

He stressed, however, that the culling should be done humanely by putting the toads in a plastic bag and placing them in a freezer.

“I find it incredible that humanity has the money and resources to launch a red sports car to the edge of the known universe,” he said.

“But [we] can’t come up with a solution to the devastation that this introduced pest is wreaking on our native fauna.”

Pictures: Snakes found in Australia and what you should know about them