It’s a mama quail vs. snakes in the ultimate fight for survival in the desert. You won’t believe how far this quail will go to try to protect her eggs from snakes that want to eat them.
Tressa Nolen-Sawyer of Tucson, Arizona set up a camera to watch a quail nest in what looks like her back or side yard. Over the course of two days, the quail mom had to fight for her own—more than once.
In the first video, you can see the mama quail aggressing on a snake trying to get into her nest, repeatedly pecking at it. The snake gets in and may have gotten away with some eggs; it’s unclear.
The very next day, Nolen-Sawyer caught another quail vs. snake scuffle. This snake is even more feisty than the first snake. It strikes at the quail several times. The mama uses her body to try to keep the snake out of her nest. The two tussle and tumble around, each trying to get the better of the other.
Unfortunately, in Nolen-Sawyer’s TikTok comment section on the second video, she said while the mama quail survived the second battle, the eggs did not. The mama quail put up one heck of a fight, though, and she’ll live to lay more eggs.