It may look like a scene from Dirty Dancing, but this footage taken on Toomba Station, Charters Towers, captures two male black-headed pythons fighting for the right to breed with a nearby female.
The video was shot by property owner Josephine Heading who shared it back with her local natural resource management group, NQ Dry Tropics.
NQ Dry Tropics said black-headed pythons (Aspidites melanocephalus) weren’t venomous and can grow to 3.5 metres long.
They're found primarily in the northern regions of Australia, preferring habitats like savannas and dry scrublands.
In posting the footage on their Facebook page, NQ Dry Tropics said “most pythons have heat pits in their heads to help them detect warm-blooded prey, but not these guys as they specialise in catching reptiles.
“They eat lizards and snakes, including some of the most venomous snakes in the world. They are immune to the venom and use their strong bodies to coil around and constrict their prey before consuming it whole.”
NQ Dry Tropics works with the Heading family to help them protect biodiversity on their property, supported through funding from the National Landcare Program.
