A yard in Australia became the backdrop for a jarring wildlife scene when footage showed the aftermath of a fight between two venomous red-bellied black snakes, with one swallowing the other.
Here's what to know
In the Reddit thread, an Australian Redditor posted a video from a residential yard titled "Red belly black snake eating another red belly," showing one red-bellied black snake consuming another.
The video shows the victorious snake wiggling back and forth as it worked the defeated snake down its throat. The two reptiles also seemed broadly similar in size. However, one person wondered, "What if the other one is longer?" which got plenty of funny replies, including, "Fold it in half and try again?"
Many replies focused less on the fight than on the meal's mechanics. One commenter captured the thread's tone with a mix of disbelief and relief: "As long as they stay out there doing that to each other, I will allow it."
More background
Part of what made the clip so intense was the ordinary backyard setting, not a remote stretch of bushland.
Yards, fences, and landscaped spaces can still function as wildlife habitat, and the more homes overlap with native animal territory, the more likely people are to witness dramatic behavior up close.
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Some viewers were unsure exactly what they were seeing. One commenter suggested the snake being eaten might be an Eastern Small-eyed Snake and said they wanted "an expert to confirm," while others were preoccupied with how a snake could physically swallow such a large animal.
Instead of stepping in, the person filming stayed back while two venomous snakes remained in the middle of a fight-turned-feeding scene.
That hands-off reaction showed up in the comments, too. Another responded to a question about the oversized meal by saying the snake would finish it "slowly but steadily — and then they'll go hide for a week or so to digest."
Where can I learn more?
If that backyard showdown made you curious about how often snakes prey on other snakes or turn up near homes, these stories cover similar encounters.
• In California, striped kingsnakes turn rattlers into prey despite the venomous risk.
• In Bihar, a family fled as a king cobra and a python squared off nearby.
• In Australia, a gardener filming mating red-bellied snakes watched the pair turn on him.
• In Yamanto, Queensland, a dog survived two eastern brown snake bites in one week.
• In New Jersey, an 8-foot python had swallowed a possum before rescuers intervened.
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