Video Shows Python With Large Bat Sticking Out of Its Belly

A video showing a python with a large bat poking out of its belly has been shared by snake catchers who rescued the animal.

The "healthy" carpet python had slithered onto a couple's front yard on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The owners called Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 for assistance.

When they arrived, Stuart McKenzie and Brendan West found a large carpet python that had eaten a large bat overnight.

Heavy rainfall has hit parts of Queensland in recent weeks, with flash flooding in some areas. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said November was the wettest since records began in 1900. It recorded an average rainfall of 72 millimeters, which is more than double the national average.

This heavy rain has forced snakes to hide away. In the video, McKenzie said that now the sun has come out, so too have the snakes. "They come out to get some food," he said.

The team finds a broken egg next to the snake, but McKenzie says he thinks this is unrelated to the stuffed snake. He goes to examine the python and finds a large hard mass in its stomach. "That's nearly breaking through the skin," he says. "I reckon it's a bat...we believe this snake has eaten a bat."

As he points to a hard mass beneath the snake's skin, he says: "That might be part of the wing. It's properly protruding out of the side. You can see how stretchy a python's skin can be but that's pretty darn close to going through. We need to be super gentle when we release him to make sure it doesn't go through."

After relocating and releasing the snake into a bush, McKenzie says that hopefully the python will go and curl up for a few days and digest the bat.

Carpet pythons are a relatively large species of snake, with individuals regularly growing up to 10 feet long. They are found across northern, eastern and southern Australia and tend to live in forests, coastal heaths, parks and suburban gardens. They are non-venomous and pose little risk to humans, although bites can result in lacerations.

The Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 were called out to another home for assistance the same day, after a carpet python was found in a toilet.

"This is unbelievable," they wrote in a Facebook post. "We just finished a job for a snake that was found in the toilet bowl of the family's bathroom!"

Images show the snake's head sticking out of the toilet bowl and the snake catcher stuck his hand in to pull it out. "How's that for dedication!" the team wrote.