It's getting hot!


It’s hot out here now and the womas have are starting to really move!  The nights have just become warm enough now that the womas can confidently leave their winter ground burrows and be sure they won’t freeze overnight if they don’t find another underground shelter.



Katie and James have well and truly split up, although they had a brief moment in the same burrow last week – 10m apart though!  Even James and Gaillee have gone their separate ways for spring time.  In fact none of the tracked womas are sharing burrows now – Lola, Winnie, Toby, Romeo and DC, who were all found to be using the same burrow system over a 3 week period have spread out over a 2km x 2km area.  Unlike most snakes, womas in captivity do most of their breeding during late summer and early autumn, rather than during spring.  So they have no need to be together at this time of the year. 



Big Bobby with a food bulge (he's old
and had some trouble shedding)

So food seems to be what is on the womas minds at this time of year and I’ve been lucky enough to record two feedings already!  The first was a big bulge in Big Bobby’s stomach last week.  We’re not sure what he ate but it was long and not very wide so volunteer Eridani from AWC suggested it might have been a goanna or large skink based on the shape and I agree with her. 

Eridani and I were really lucky to see the second feeding - woma Humphrey stalked, killed and started eating a bearded dragon that was sleeping 3m up in a false sandalwood (Eremophila mitchellii) tree!  That’s right, up a tree!  So much for them being a strictly terrestrial python!  We were searching everywhere on the ground for him with no luck – we couldn’t even see any burrow entries where he could have gone underground.  Then Eridani made a joke - ‘maybe he’s turned arboreal on us’ - and looked up to find him stalking the bearded dragon!  We couldn’t believe it!  He was only 30cm away from the sleeping dragon but it took him at least another 15 mins to cover that last 30cm and attack it.  As he struck, Humphrey and the beardie fell off but Humphrey held on with his tail to hang 1m below the branch, where he coiled the beardie up and killed it.  The beardie had immediately puffed up with air after it was struck so Humphrey had a big mission ahead of him to devour this very round, very spikey dragon!  In fact he had only just started eating the head end when he lost his grip and fell 2m to the ground.  Then it took him over an hour to swallow his meal – longer than it took Katie to eat the hare!  So it was well after midnight by the time he finished, but he still managed to move 400m away over the next 36hrs.  Next time we found him it was early morning and he was basking outside his burrow in the only patch of sunlight available – he had a big dragon to digest!

Bearded dragon - Humphry's food

All of the womas have now moved away from their winter burrows with some moving around since late September, others moving just this week.  The winter burrows provided really good insulation against the winter cold with the snake body temperatures never dropping below 13^oC despite the outside temperatures regularly dropping below 0^oC and two mornings that were below -4^oC!  It seems these burrow systems are really important for the womas to survive the harsh winter conditions out here.

There’s sure to be lots of action over the summer and I will do my best to keep you updated from out here during this busy season.  Stay tuned...