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Ah, that is the thing about nature - never a dull moment!

Poor little Brown House snake got nabbed by a rather large Forest Cobra around St. Lucia's Estuary.

The battle took a while but in the end they split. I would assume the Cobra was going to wait for the little dude to die from the venom. I can tell you that the little House snake put up one big fight, it had a good grip of the Cobra's head. We did not see it being eaten as the house snake wobbled away into the bush. With the Cobra around I did not think it would have been a good idea to follow...

My mate took some photo's while I was busy with the videocam.

Anyone out there have any Reptile fights from other parks?

Great pics!!!

Great sighting xenokal!

Out of interest I have seen a Mozambiquan Spitting Cobra and a Puff Adder having a standoff in KNP but I think my discovering the sighting ruined the outcome.
Otherwise 2 occassions friends have seen Cape Cobras catch, kill and eat Puff Adders!

Great photo's xenokal! Thanks for sharing.

Puff adders.... wow!
You would think they would stay clear from Puffies... would be so amazing to see that!

Great description and pics, X.

A few moons ago we saw a black shiny snake chasing a brown wettish looking snake (apologies, but my knowledge of snakes are limited to the main okes) at our braai in Satara. Whilst hubby was braaing. Both were relatively small in size, but BIG enough to ensure that I stayed the rest of the night on the stoep!

Hey Xenokal!
Yip crazy couldnt believe it but from the stories and the Mfezi showing interest in one, it must be a relatively common occurence!

What a GREAT set of pictures!!
Well done on capturing those.
Strange as the Brown House Snake is a Nocturnal Species

EDIT:

What time of day was this?
Was that Brown House snake not perhaps hit by a car and injured? I see in the first picture there are excretions from the house snake?

Now thats a special sighting, not often one sees the hunting anticts of smaller species, especially reptiles

It can be a juvinile Black mamba .

We sow one praying on a bull frog and we couldnot find what kind of snake it was until we lookde at its mouth it was pitch black like the black mamba. It probely just shedded its skin.

Wow I live in Cape town and I Hope not to see a snake anytime soon.This picture will do .I never knew snakes prey on Each other that very strange to me ,or maybe its because i'am from the city .

Thanks for sharing this pictures

Trust us Isis, most things feed on each other in one way or another. Many snakes eat other snakes, sometimes eating snakes larger than themselves. I see that someone has mentioned eg cobras eating puff adders. Where there are many cobras puff adders are prone to become rare for that reason. You see, snakes are a convenient shape to swallow, much as humans can swallow long spaghetti.
Some snakes, such as King Cobras even specialise in eating snakes. Ecology, ethology, and evolution are not interesting for nothing!!!