What Do Snakes Eat

There are thousands of species of snakes in the world, and they all have different diet. Here is some information about the diet of different groups of Australian snakes.

What a snake eats depends on its size and strategies, but also its habitat. Rainforest snakes eat frogs and the desert snakes eat reptiles because that’s what is available in their habitat.

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Pythons are Australia’s largest snakes and they eat large prey like wallabies and small kangaroos. There are some species of smaller pythons though which eat prey as small as geckoes.
Colubrid Snakes is a large and very diverse group of Australian harmless snakes, which eat frogs, lizards, crabs, fish, cane toads, birds and small mammals.


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Death Adders eat small vertebrates and birds. Unlike most other snakes, they don’t hunt actively but hide under leaves with only the tip of their tail out, which is mimicking a moving insect or a small animal. When a bird or mammal comes to catch it, the death adder strikes quicker than any other snake in the world.

Australian Copperheads eat a variety of small vertebrates such as skinks and frogs.


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Australian Whipsnakes live in dry open areas where they feed mainly on lizards.
Taipan Snakes feed exclusively on mammals, mostly smaller mammals like rats.


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Black Snakes eat a variety of animals such as frogs, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Australian Brown Snakes eat different vertebrates, but mainly reptiles and mammals.