Do these wild frog and snakes looking healthy?

[bugmankeith]

A friend in India told me of frogs and snakes living in a well and have been stuck there for over a year and says they are thriving. I think the original ones died and new ones keep falling in, making him think they have been living in it for over a year. The frogs look too big for the snake to eat, and the snake looks too big for the frogs to eat, so what on earth is keeping them alive? I also thought snakes need to sunbathe to properly digest food, the snakes only have a damp plank of wood to stay dry on. I told my friend I think if he could get them out of there it would be good for them, but he disagrees. Do you think these look healthy and what types of frog and snake are they?

 

[pitbulllady]

I can't say about the frog species, since I'm not familiar with frogs in India, but the snakes are definitely a Natricine species, probably Checkered Keelbacks(Xenochrophis piscator), which are related to our Water and Garter Snakes. They actually look almost identical to my FL Green Waters. The snakes look to be on the thin side, but maybe that's how Keelbacks look, and I'm used to seeing fat, chunky American Water Snakes, lol. Snakes do not need sunlight, per se, to digest their food. They just need to be at the right temperature. I have many that have lived indoors their entire lives and never seen a ray of sun, and I do not use UVB bulbs, yet they are very healthy. It would concern me more that they never really get the chance to dry off, and I know how bad that is for Natricine snakes. I tend to believe as you do, that these snakes, at least, are simply animals that have more recently fallen into the well, and are replaced by new ones as those trapped in the well die of infections. Even though those frogs are too big for those particular snakes to eat, the frogs probably ARE breeding in the well, since it has everything they need to do so, so snakes would have a meal of tadpoles and froglets for awhile at least, until the snakes succumb to infections.

pitbulllady