Snake vs Gecko

This morning I was sitting in the library whiling away some time when something caught my eye in the window.  I looked up and waited and then suddenly a gecko started to try to climb the glass.  It looked very funny as it couldn't get any traction, I assumed there was something tasty up higher and eventually the gecko ran up the outer windowsill and sat up there for a few minutes.

I laughed and watched it's antics.

Then all of a sudden something else caught my eye at the bottom of the window and I realised there was a snake and that was why the gecko was trying to get up the glass. The snake had the gecko in it's mouth and they fought and turned for some time.  The gecko escaped a few times, but the snake was a bit more flexible and was able to follow the gecko very quickly.

I didn't know at this point what snake it was, but I now know it was a bronze back which is nonvenomous.  It came in a tiny hole/gap from the outside window and got itself trapped between the inside and outside windows with a huge gecko in it's mouth.  No idea how it thought it would get out again if it ate the gecko as it's belly would never have fitted out the little hole again!

Anyway, human intervention followed much to my disappointment as I was enjoying the spectacle.  The outside window was opened and the snake took off like a robbers dog without it's gecko.  One of the women opened the inside window - much to my horror! - and the gecko was sent packing too.

I hope the gecko survives - although I suspect a a very sore head for a day or 2!
Annoyingly I only had my iPhone so my photos are very average.

Beef day

Thursday was beef day for the crocs.  Twice a month huge amount of beef that is already chopped into portions arrives and it gets sorted into buckets for different enclosures.  The beef is all parts of the cow as it is important for crocodiles to get skin, bones and offal.

The fun part is getting to throw it into the pens and watching the crocs down it in single gulps.  They enjoy their beef days very much.  My aim got a lot better after a few direct hits of a lump of bony meat straight onto the crocs head - the noise was very loud, being bone landing on bone.  I suspect if the crocs could talk, their words would have been unrepeatable.  Poor things!

The idea is to ensure that the smaller crocs who don't push forward get their share of the meat too.  So long distance throwing of beef is important.  I was rather proud of myself when I threw 2 lumps in a row that landed inside the crocs jaws.  I think we were in sync with each other.

Selecting a piece... 

Eyeing up a deserving beast

And throwing it!

I much prefer the fish feeding days…  Beef is a bit stinky and sticky!