An incredible video has captured the moment a massive five-metre-long snake swallowed a lifeless kangaroo whole - just metres from a campsite where people were on holiday.
Daily Mail reports that the video was filmed at a family caravan park in Cooktown, far north Queensland, and posted online on Tuesday.
In the clip, the 17-foot snake - which appears to be an amethystine python, Australia's largest species of snake- is first seen with most of the kangaroo hanging from its mouth.
Gradually, the ravenous reptile slithers forward, disjointing its body to devour more of its marsupial meal. With each push forward, the snake's body grows noticeably thicker as it expands to ensure there is enough room for the kangaroo.
'Just found this snake at the back of the caravan,' Helen Smart, who filmed the video, can be heard saying. 'And I'm whispering because you can see it's eating a kangaroo. Oh my god, it's so big, it's humongous... poor little kangaroo.'
About 10 seconds into the video, the snake appearing to snap its neck at an almost 90-degree angle, allowing it to move further up along its lunch.
'You can see it is constricting the kangaroo as it swallow,' the woman said. 'Can't believe it's at the back of the caravan... poor little kangaroo, you can see its legs sticking out.'
As the woman talks, the terrifying creature continues to greedily gulp down its prey.
About 90 seconds into the footage, the camerawoman moves to stand side-on with the snake. At that point, only the tail of the kangaroo is seen sticking out of the reptile's deadly jaw.
Slowly but surely, the snake - known as a morelia kinghorni - keeps eating until its meal has entirely disappeared. The kangaroo can be seen protruding from its killer's scaly stomach.
'It is an amazing sight,' Ms Smart is again heard saying. 'He's got a big fat belly.'
Ms Smart said she had never seen a snake that big in her life.
'We're used to seeing snakes around here but this was easily the biggest one, its mouth was humongous,' she said.'My husband walked around the back of our caravan and almost fell over the python - we had no idea it was there up until that point.'
Ms Smart also said she was thrilled she or her animals didn't become a meal for the massive reptile.
'I was just glad it had already caught the roo, we've got two little dogs and one of them could easily have been gulped down,' she said.
'Also, I'm only 4'7' myself so in theory I'm sure it could have swallowed me too.'
Amethystine pythons are Australia's largest snake with the average length of one being about five metres, however the largest on record was an incredible eight metres long, according to Queensland's Department of Environment.
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