Amazing and extremely rare video of Fighting black mambas right next to the road! They were estimated at 4.5m long each.
Tourists in South Africa’s Kruger National Park happened upon a pair of sneaky snakes in the grass on a recent trip through the park. While it might appear that these two lovebirds (love snakes?) are having some adult fun time, things may not be exactly as they seem.
According to herpetologist Johan Marais, these two black mambas are actually a couple of rival males fighting for the attention of a female, who is likely nearby watching this show of male bravado. When a similar video popped up online back in February, snake expert Shaun Bodington explained that this behavior is similar to a sumo wrestling match.
There’s a lot of shoving back and forth until the bigger and stronger of the two wins out. This isn’t mating. This is two males fighting for the chance to mate. Venomous creatures are careful not to kill each other, but wrestle to establish who is strongest.
Each is trying to pin the other to the ground, which is how they get so twisted. Once pinned, the loser slinks off and leaves the largest, strongest male to claim all females in the area.
