The battle and the bulge: Amazing pictures show python making a meal of cockatoo

These amazing pictures show the moments a python captures a sulphur-crested cockatoo, squeezes it slowly to death and eats it whole.

The photographs were taken by artist Cindy Lane who watched the TWO HOUR event taking place in her back garden in Cairns in Queensland, Australia.

Ms Lane was painting in her studio when she heard a 'couple of loud squawks' coming from the bougainvillea tree in her backyard.

She found the python coiling itself tightly around the bird high in the tree's branches.

'I considered jumping in to save him, but his last breath was literally being squeezed from him as we approached,' she said.

The python took about two hours to complete his meal after 'one false start'.

Ms Lane added: 'It was difficult to watch but at the same time mesmerising.'