An odd video from South Africa features a fearsome pair of venomous snakes engaged in an epic battle. The riveting footage, which runs a remarkable three minutes long, was captured by a monkey welfare worker visiting the Limpopo province of South Africa. Initially thinking that he'd simply spotted a strange stick, Dave Du Toit soon realized that he had actually stumbled upon something wonderfully weird.
In the video, two ring-necked spitting cobras, known as rinkhals, wrestle around on the ground with their jaws locked in a proverbial death grip. Although tangled up at first, the two snakes eventually change tactics by becoming fully stretched out in the dirt and rolling around in what seems to be an attempt to tire their opponent. Meanwhile, Du Toit and his colleagues look on in amusement at the showdown unfolding before their eyes.
According to a report, the animal activist eventually and, one would assume carefully, separated the two snakes and sent them on their way in separate directions. "If they still felt the need to continue arguing they could do it in the safety of the bush where the chance of either one or both of them surviving was far greater," Du Toit said. Considering that the creatures were spitting cobras, he's lucky that his self-appointed role of referee didn't result in a venomous attack.
We'd be remiss in not mentioning one truly head scratching aspect of the video that, unfortunately, goes unexplained: the soulful love song that serves as a soundtrack to the footage. One can only wonder how the out-of-place crooning wound up playing in the background, since it almost makes the snakes look like they are taking part in some kind of mating ritual rather than fighting for the lives.