This is the moment a plucky 3ft long Trinket snake takes on a 5ft Indian Rat snake in a bid to find its next meal.
Despite its smaller size, the Trinket wraps itself around the larger snake’s heart – a position which would have killed smaller prey almost instantly.
The feisty reptiles were found in a family’s garden in Sunabeda, the Koraput district of the state of Odisha, India, on June 7.
Trinket snakes are known to attack other snakes but usually pick a prey smaller in size.
Sujit Kumar Mohanty, a volunteer of Snake Helpline, an animal welfare organisation, received a distress call from a family, which had spotted the two duelling snakes in their backyard.
Subhendu Mallik, founder of Snake Helpline, advised worker Sujith to intervene as the Trinket snake was too small to swallow the thicker bodied snake.
Worker Sujith held down the Rat snake with a stick while untangling the feisty reptile.
The snakes were placed into separate bags and later released in a nearby forest.
Subhendu said: “If you watch the video carefully, you can see that the trinket had cleverly coiled itself around the heart of the rat snake making it difficult to move.
“The tiny trinket was applying enormous pressure on the heart and would have killed the much larger prey,’ he added.
