Rise of super snakes as pythons and venomous species get bigger in Australia

Pythons and some species of venomous snakes are being found in larger sizes as a result of warm, wet weather providing a more ample food supply.

According to a report in Australia's Daily Telegraph, snake experts have noticed red-bellied blacks, eastern browns, swamp snakes, and diamond pythons getting bigger and more abundant.

The boom in snake size follows a period of relative famine as a result of drought. Warmer, wetter weather causes the number of frogs, rodents, and snakes to multiply, providing an increased food supply.

Graham Nobbs, a snake catcher for the Central Coast, said: "Snakes are no different to any other species in the way that their numbers are completely reliant on environmental factors.

"They are completely at the mercy of the seasons and natural cycles of both short and long term weather patterns, because these cycles directly influence their food supply."

Australian Reptile Park keeper Julie Mendezona said normally red-bellied blacks and browns grow to about 2m, but specimens measuring 2.5m have been caught earlier this year.

Experts have said the increase in size could also be a result of the snakes living longer - and as a result growing larger - because the public is increasingly aware and understanding of snakes and are not killing them.

Worldwide trend

A report by Discovery earlier this year said snakes are getting bigger across the globe because of humans and climate change. In Florida, for example, Burmese pythons were available to buy in pet shops in Florida until the 90s. After escaping or being released into the wild, their population became established because the Everglades has turned out to be a good habitat, for now at least.

Warming global temperatures also provide a boost for some snake species as it has allowed them to move further north into cooler climates – rattlesnakes in the US and Canada are an example of this.

Snakes the length of buses?

An article from November by NBC also pointed to a future of super-sized snakes. It noted that millions of years ago, warmer temperatures favoured smaller mammals and larger reptiles.

Looking at the Paleocene Epoch era (about 65 million years ago) to the start of the Eocene (56 million years ago), Jonathan Bloch, a palaeontologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, found evidence of giant reptiles, with turtles the size of breakfast tables and snakes as long as buses.

"Imagine that the snake would have to squeeze through the door, and come up to your waist," said Bloch.

It is believed at this time global temperatures had increased by between 5C and 8C, and experts say gigantism could occur again if atmospheric CO2 reaches levels present during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. "You see the size of these animals dancing with the climate," Bloch said.