It was a battle to the death in which there would be no victors – only mutually assured destruction.
When two of the world’s most dangerous reptiles – a King Cobra and a Reticulated Python – locked in a deadly embrace, both ended up dead.
The python crushed the cobra which in turn poisoned the python.
It was a battle in which there could be no winners: The deadly serpents’ duel – thought to have been photoed somewhere in South-east Asia – ended in both reptiles being killed
A photo of the macabre hug is now going viral on social media – but no-one knows exactly what the original source is, Bgr.com reported, with the identity of the original photographer unknown.
The king cobra’s primary weapon is its venomous bite and it is notorious for its deadly toxins. After overcoming its victim, it often swallows it whole.
The cobra can be identified in the photo by its tail stretching towards the top of the picture and has the python caught between its jaws.
Reticulated pythons on the other hand are considered to be the world’s longest snakes but, unlike the cobra, they are not venomous.
But they are known to use their powerful, muscular bodies to wrap around their prey, cutting off circulation and causing death by limiting blood flow to vital organs.
As Bgr.com points out, ‘in this case, you can see the python has turned the body of the cobra into a twisted pretzel’.
Online postings suggest that the cobra was the aggressor in this fight, and that after being bitten the python strangled its attacker.
But it seems pretty clear that neither of the combatants made it out alive after the the cobra literally bit off more than it could chew.
A spokesman for the Florida Museum of Natural History told National Geographic that the fight is likely to have taken place somewhere in South-east Asia, where the species are known to overlap.
source: dailymail.co.uk
