Um homem olhava pela janela de seu quarto recentemente, quando viu algo se contorcendo em seu quintal, na cidade de Escombe, na costa sudeste da África do Sul. Lelo Chili estava assistindo a uma briga de duas enormes mambas negras e compartilhou o vídeo, compartilhado em uma rede social pelo salvador de cobras Nick Evans.
O vídeo mostra a batalha dos dois répteis entrelaçados. Eles se separam poucos segundos, antes de continuarem a briga. Segundo Evans, as mambas negras machos não se mordem quando brigam, e lutam até que uma se renda. As informações são do site Yahoo.
Duas mambas negras se enrolam e brigam por fêmea na África do Sul – Foto: Reprodução/ Facebook Nick Evans
A mais longa das cobras, de 2,5 m de comprimento, prendeu a menor por alguns segundos. De acordo com Evans, elas estavam brigando por uma fêmea, comportamento típico na época de acasalamento.
Faça como milhões de leitores informados: siga o ND Mais no Google. SeguirDepois de avistar a luta, Chili chamou o salvador de cobras Duncan Slabbert, que veio para ajudar na captura. A luta demorou entre 35 a 40 minutos até a cobra menor se render e ser recolhida por Slabbert
Reação à luta de mambas negras
Nas redes sociais, usuários compartilharam reações à batalha de cobras. “Tive vários calafrios passando por mim e agora preciso me sentar”. Outro internauta comentou: “Eu teria morrido e ido para o céu se tivesse visto isso pela minha janela”.
Last week Friday, a resident from Escombe, Queensburgh, and my friend, Duncan Slabbert, were treated to one of the most spectacular snake sightings one could possibly wish for.The resident just happened to look out his bedroom window, when he saw these two, large Black Mambas, intertwined. These were two males wrestling over a female. This is typical behavior of this time of year, as winter is the mating season.The residents called Duncan, who rushed over. Duncan called me, but to my absolute dismay, I wasn't available.The mambas fought for the 15 minutes or so that it took Duncan to get there. Duncan was then incredibly fortunate enough to watch them continue wrestling for another 15-20 minutes.I've been lucky to witness male combat in mambas a few times, but never for more than a few seconds. Male mambas don't bite each other. They wrestle till one surrenders. In this case, Duncan explained how the slightly larger specimen would pull the smaller one back ever so slightly, with the bodies wrapped up as you can see below. The larger mamba would then try and pin the smaller mambas neck down on the ground, holding it there for a second or two. Duncan witnessed this behaviour about three times, before the smaller one surrendered, and started to move off.Of course, the residents weren't too happy to have the mambas in the garden. Hardly anyone would. So, Duncan skillfully caught both. Fortunately the mambas are exhausted after the battle, and so even though one tries escaping while the other is being caught, a snake-catcher can catch up to the second. I've been successful like that in the past, but not always, it depends on the setting.I later met up with Duncan to measure and weigh the mambas. The larger one was just over 2.6m, the other was just over 2.5m, with the larger one being nearly 300g heavier.Thank you to the resident, Lelo Chili, and Duncan Slabbert, for allowing me to share their footage.It's been an exceptionally quiet mamba mating season so far, well, certainly from my perspective. So I was pleased to see this, although I'd much preferred to have witnessed it in person?
Posted by Nick Evans- Snake Rescuer on Monday, July 3, 2023