A strange snake sighting near Birmingham, Alabama, sparked discussion online after an inaccurate description of what the serpents were doing.
Here's what to know
The footage of two cottonmouths in the water, shared to Reddit's r/Snakes community, showed the venomous pair appearing almost calm, even though they were intertwined.
"I saw this and had to show people," the original poster wrote. "Spotted these two cottonmouths just south of Birmingham, Alabama. Fairly certain this is mating but I may be wrong."
(Click here if the embedded video does not appear.)
But soon after posting the footage, commenters streamed into the thread to dispute the notion that the snakes were mating.
Commenters quickly framed the behavior as a fight, with one calling the snakes "two males in combat" and another joking that it looked like a "territorial thumb war on water."
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The OP later added that they watched the pair for "a good ten minutes" and that "they weren't being particularly aggressive with one another." After leaving to continue working nearby and returning about an hour later, the OP also said the snakes were "together still doing what I can only describe as cuddling."
Other commenters shared their amazement that the territorial display occurred in such an unusual location.
One wrote, "Wow, I have never seen male combat while in water! That's so cool. … Watch your step, the female will be nearby waiting to breed with the winner of this duel!"
Another added, "This might be the first video of interviperian naval combat I've seen."
Where can I learn more?
People have made the same mix-up in other snake sightings too.
• At Colorado's Garden of the Gods, snakes mistaken for mating were actually battling for breeding rights.
• In Greece's Sitia Geopark, two males battling for turf looked like an exotic mating ritual.
• In India, a king cobra was filmed making an elegant glide along the shoreline.
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