Man looks out window — and catches ‘spectacular’ snake fight in South Africa. See it
Lelo Chili was looking out of his bedroom window in South Africa recently when he caught sight of something writhing around his backyard.
Chili was looking at a brawl between two massive black mambas, a video shared on Facebook by snake rescuer Nick Evans showed. Evans described the battle as “one of the most spectacular snake sightings one could possibly wish for.”
The video shows the massive reptiles intertwined with one another as they slither through the yard. Every few seconds, they slightly separate, as they rear their heads back before slamming into one another again.
Male black mambas don’t bite one another when they fight, according to Evans. Instead, they wrestle until one surrenders. In this case, the longer of the two snakes kept pinning the smaller snake down for a few seconds at a time.
Evans said the snakes were fighting over a female, which is typical behavior as this time of year is mating season. The female snake was likely hidden in a nearby bush during the wrestling match.
After spotting the snakes, Chili called a snake rescuer, Duncan Slabbert, who came to assist in capturing the snakes, according to Evans. The creatures wrestled for a total of about 35 minutes to 40 minutes before the smaller snake surrendered and Slabbert caught both animals.
Once Slabbert caught the snakes, he and Evans measured and weighed them both. The longer of the two creatures was about 8.5 feet long while the shorter snake was just over 8.2 feet long, Evans said.
“It’s been an exceptionally quiet mamba mating season so far, well, certainly from my perspective. So I was pleased to see this, although I’d much preferred to have witnessed it in person,” Evans wrote on Facebook.
Social media users shared reactions to the battle.
“I had several cold shivers rush through me and now I need to sit down,” one person commented on Evans’ video.
“I’m sitting in my garden in London and just put my feet up on the chair,” another person commented on the Facebook post.
“I would’ve died and gone to heaven if I’d seen that through my window,” a third Facebook user commented.
Chili lives in Escombe, Queensburgh, on the southeast coast of South Africa and about 350 miles from Johannesburg.
Watch release of rare snake — with deadly bite — after rescue from India neighborhood
Photographer sees a splash in Australia — then is ‘shocked’ when he checks his footage
Watch ‘friendly’ creature visit boaters in Australia. ‘Right place at the right time’
