A remarkable photo has emerged from Griffith in southern New South Wales that depicts two dead snakes entangled; one brown, one black.

Look a little closer, though, and the scenario is less than clear-cut, raising questions that remain unanswered.

Has the brown snake swallowed the black snake? Has the black snake then bitten its way out? Is that even possible?

Just what has gone on here is a mystery to Geoff Mitchell, the passer-by who snapped the mysterious photo after spotting the dead snakes on a roadside.

"I saw a tangle of snakes and got up to have a look, grabbed my camera and took a picture," he told radio 3AW.

"I've thought about it quite a lot, I had to research it. It seems quite common for brown snakes to eat black snakes but I have seen none where one snake has punched a hole through another."

According to 3AW, the picture has been forwarded to Queensland's Australia Zoo, which was similarly bewildered.

"Wow! This is certainly unusual and we have not seen this before. We can't imagine a black snake climbing into another snake but this entire situation is very strange. We would still suggest that the brown one was eating the black, but we will never know for sure," the zoo replied.