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Please be advised that some of the images on this page
may be to graphic for some adults, and some children:

The Coachwhip strikes again!

Sonoran Coachwhip Snake
Masticophis flagellum

Map and range may not be to any scale.

The snake you are about to view was photographed 10/16/2000 late afternoon
in the Saguaro National Park, northwest of Tucson, Arizona.

I have seen these snakes climb a Cholla cactus to get at bird eggs.
They also will climb trees to get lizards.
Of course they would never pass up a rodent on the ground, as you are about witness.

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I just know there is a mouse around here some where.

I'll lay real still and just watch for a while.

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I think it may have spotted some thing.

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A mouse ran out from behind a clump of grass, and before you could wink your eye,
the snake covered the distance of 3 to 4 feet and got the mouse.

The mouse almost got away.
As you can see, the snake only caught the mouse by its back legs.

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Now the snake has a problem. It needs to do two things.
First, it needs to kill the mouse without loosing it.
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Second, it needs to turn the mouse around so
that the mouse's head is in the snakes mouth in order to swallow it.

So, let's tackle this job one photo at a time.

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Well, it's half way there. It now it has the mouse by the mid section,
but the mouse can still breath.

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It must now kill the mouse by suffocating it.

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It must now turn the mouse so that it can swallow it head first.

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I do believe it just about has the job done.

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THE BIG GULP

It took the snake approximately 5 minutes to completely swallow this mouse.

The snake must have seen me, so it quickly went under a bush to finish swallowing the mouse.
I was very lucky to get this one last image.

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