A few days ago Ian and I were out walking Zeph in the jungle (hey, we've spend the last umpteen years in southern Alberta -- it looks like the jungle here!) when I happened to spot, at the side of the path, the "snake-eating-toad" event repeating itself.
"Ack!!" I said (it was all I could muster at the time).
Ian, however, sprang into action, pinning the snake gently on the back of its neck with his walking stick (do snakes have necks?). It promptly disgorged the toad, who was not as far gone as the first one we saw, and slithered indignantly, or maybe resignedly -- how do I know -- into the underbrush. Ian picked up the toad and deposited it about 50 yards along the path under a bush beside a stream. We looked carefully at the toad but it gave no sign that it was grateful, or even very much aware of our existance.
All we could do was leave it to its own devices, which looked pretty limited, even for a toad.
That evening, we found out why the toad was less than lively. From Wikepedia:
"Garters were long thought to be nonvenomous, but recent discoveries have revealed that they do in fact produce a mild neurotoxic venom...The mild poison is spread into wounds through a chewing action."
So the poor toad probably couldn't move even if all his toady neurons were screaming: "Red alert! Red alert! Being picked up by giant monster and moved from my territory!!!!"
Well hey toad. It's better than being eaten alive.
I checked the next day to see whether the toad was still sitting under the bush beside the stream. It wasn't. Maybe the snake got it after all.
I prefer to think it will go on to become the largest, oldest toad in the jungle. The King of Toads.
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The toad will live a long life and tell all of its toadlets and grandtoadlets of the worst day of his entire life, when he was attacked by two large horrible creatures, the latter of which inexplicably let him go.
ReplyDeleteThe snake will live a long life and tell all of its snakelets and grandsnakelets that people suck, and it's best to eat one's dinner where people can't see.
Further reading turned up this little tidbit:
ReplyDeleteToads eat baby garters.
It really is just too yucky.