Rhombic Egg-Eater Snake, a Species That Feeds Exclusively on Eggs

LOOK: Snake Blows Up Like a Balloon After Feasting on Egg

In the animal kingdom, there’s no shortage of ruthless behavior. Nothing, however, illustrates the lawlessness of the wild quite like the vulnerability of baby animals. Predators don’t avoid eating prey just because it’s young – on the contrary, babies provide much easier meals. And some animals, like the Dasypeltis genus of snakes, eat babies before they’ve even emerged from their eggs.

Using their highly flexible jaws and necks, Dasypeltis snakes are capable of consuming eggs that appear far too large for their mouths. One particularly ambitious snake in Africa went as far as to devour an egg more than three times the size of its head, causing its body to inflate like a balloon as a result.

Frank De Beer, a 27-year-old field guide in the savannas of sub-Saharan Africa caught the entire stomach-churning site on camera, sharing his footage with Latest Sightings. “We were sitting next to a water hole, enjoying a hot cup of coffee, and admiring the views,” he explained. “As we were busy packing up, I heard a pair of very unhappy Blacksmith lapwings. They were mobbing something on the ground. I immediately thought, ‘Snake!’”

Blacksmith lapwings are interesting animals. They build their nests on the ground in open spaces, which may seem ill-advised, but these tiny birds are absolutely fearless when it comes to their young. Parents protect their nests with near-unhinged levels of aggression, launching aerial attacks on animals far larger than themselves, such as 11-ton African elephants, to keep their babies safe.

The Angry Parents Sadly Failed in Protecting Their Egg From the Hungry Snake

Sadly, even this lionhearted approach to parenthood and the birds’ anvil-like screeches couldn’t protect their eggs from the hungry snake.

Without batting a tiny black eye, the Dasypeltis snake approached the nest, ignoring the screeching birds nearby. It then firmly clutched one of the massive speckled eggs in its toothless jaws before slithering away with its prize.

“The lapwings went into attack mode, swooping down to peck at the egg eater and drive it away,” Beer recalled. “However, the egg eater was persistent and agile, dodging their attacks and slithering toward the nest.”

“The egg eater soon reached the nest, and we held our breath as it began biting at one of the lapwings’ eggs. The lapwings continued to attack, but they were no match for the quick and elusive egg eater.”

As if the video of the snake devouring the egg wasn’t gruesome enough, let’s talk about the actual mechanisms behind it. After opening their jaws wide to pull the egg inside, the Dasypeltis crushes it. Rather than using teeth, however, (because they have none) the snake uses bony protrusions on the inside edge of its spine to break the shell.

After squeezing every delicious drop of liquid from the egg, the snake regurgitates the crushed eggshell and leaves it behind, the only evidence of their grisly meal.