Rattlesnakes reign supreme in the American Southwest, right? Not if you ask the California kingsnake, a nonvenomous constrictor snake notorious for eating other snakes (including venomous rattlesnakes). Steve Chavosky captured a video of this happening in realtime—a massive kingsnake devouring an equally massive rattlesnake. Watching the two snakes battle is gross and fascinating at the same time.
Chavosky doesn’t provide much context in his video, which has a half-million views so far on Instagram. He simply wrote “Arizona” in the caption, suggesting this went down somewhere in the Grand Canyon State.
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People in the comments section debate which exact snake species are involved in this battle, but the consensus seems to be a California kingsnake (Lampropeltis californiae) and a western diamondback rattlesnake. (Crotalus atrox). The kingsnake is the snake that’s winning.
If you know snakes, you’re not surprised by this. They’re called “king” snakes, after all, because they specialize in hunting other snakes, including other kingsnakes. And, in case you’re wondering, kingsnakes are “highly resistant to rattlesnake venom,” which came in handy for this particular kingsnake.
Watch two snakes battle in Arizona here:
Header stock image by David A. Northcott/Getty Images