Mount Gravatt Environment Group

Carpet Python Morelia spilota – sunbaking

By: Barry Flowers

If you want to know anything about stalking, talk to the carpet snake and the possum outside the sunroom this morning.  Guess what, the possum escaped after the ‘capture’ from its nest (drey)! A pity that I didn’t have a video of it all, as the speed with which the snake struck was unreal.

I initially spotted the carpet snake in the gum outside our sunroom where it appeared to be sunning itself.  In time it moved across two adjacent trees moving towards the tree about a metre away from our room.  We knew that it housed a possum nest for years but we have not seen any movement within it for over 12 months so assumed it was abandoned (it is well camouflaged).

Python vs Possum – who wins?

Then the snake approached it and within a fraction of a second had the possum within its grasp.  It grappled with it for about a minute as in the position of the final photograph but somehow the possum found its way to freedom when it dropped about 3 or 4 metres and disappeared in a hurry.

Editor’s note: Unlike, Brushtail Possums Trichosurus vulpecula, Ringtail Possums Pseudocheirus peregrinus don’t invade the roofs in our houses, they make a spherical nest or drey  from grass and shredded bark. The drey is built in a tree hole, tree fork or dense vegetation. If you have Ringtails in your area consider building a drey in your backyard.