Mille Stoevring and Shane Tuer, of Sunrise Beach, found the carpet python halfway through its meal and decided they would get up close and personal with the reptile, filming the video and taking these pictures - which caught the eye of Sunshine Coast snake catcher, Stuart McKenzie.

Mr McKenzie said the couple were happy to leave the snake to reign free in their backyard, as the major threat carpet pythons pose were to small animals.

“Like with any snake, if you leave them alone they’ll leave you alone - they’re more afraid of you than you are of them,” he said.

, Source: Supplied

The python devours the bat. Source: Supplied

 “But with a snake that size, anything that’s small - chickens, small dogs, small cats - it can eat things like that.”

Mr McKenzie, 25, said most of his calls during the warmer months were snakes that had caught themselves in fences or cages after eating chickens or small animals.

“As snake catchers - especially when it warms up - we’re often called out to a homes where the snake is stuck in the pet enclosure after it has eaten a chicken or something like that.”

 

Mille Stoevring and Shane Tuer found the carpet python halfway through its meal. Source: Supplied

 

As for whether a bat was the most peculiar animal he had seen a python eat, the owner of Snake Catcher 24/7 said there were other instances he could recall of bats being eaten alive.

“I have seen a few photos of them eating bats but there are also things like possums, rats, other birds.

“Those pictures are some of the coolest I’ve seen though, you don’t often see shots of the snake halfway through its feed.”

For more information about Snake Catcher 24/7 head to facebook.com/ReptileCatcher or www.thesnakecatcher.com.au/