A rare snake died while trying to swallow a giant centipede at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in South Florida, according to the FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
FWC researchers said a visitor to the park found the rare, dead snake on a trail with the rear portion of a centipede protruding from its mouth. The snake died while attempting to eat the giant centipede.
In a Facebook post, FCW said “the state-threatened rim rock crowned snake lives in pine rockland and hammock habitats in eastern Miami-Dade County and the Keys.”
According to researchers, the burrowing species typically grows between 7-9 inches long and is rarely seen because it lives under debris, rocks or cavities in underlying limestone.
Other species of crowned snake often eat centipedes, but this specimen represents the first food record of any kind for the little-known rim rock species, FCW said. Crowned snakes immobilize their prey using mild venom but are unable to bite humans because of their small size.
The prey item appears to be a juvenile Keys giant centipede which can reach the size of a crowned snake as an adult. Crowned snakes are usually immune to the venom of centipedes, whose bites are painful to humans, but something went wrong during this encounter. Researchers said the rare snake, along with the centipede, will be deposited in the Florida Museum of Natural History collection.
