Fight or flight?
A cobra and a mongoose treated an airstrip like a boxing ring, viciously attacking each other and wreaking havoc in India.
The plane’s takeoff was delayed after the pilot spotted the creatures scrapping on the tarmac in Patna, Bihar, as seen in a viral video.
The interspecies grudge match reportedly occurred at Jay Prakash Narayan Airport, although the plane’s intended destination is currently unclear, Jam Press reported.
In the footage, filmed from the plane’s window, a cobra can be seen lashing out at a mongoose as the lightning-quick furball tries to avoid its venomous fangs.
The match seems fairly even until the cavalry arrives: Two other mongooses rush to their mate’s aid and seem to tip the scales in the mammals’ favor.
Although it is unclear which combatant was victorious, mongooses generally have the advantage due to their supersonic reflexes, thick hides, and natural resistance to cobra venom.
In fact, experts estimate that these cuddly animals win 75% to 80% of fights with their cold-blooded competitors.
Mongoose-cobra showdowns are quite common in the wild, where the two species compete for the same prey and even eat each other, It was reported by the Economic Times of India.
The snakes are known to hunt baby mongooses while mongooses hunt and eat cobras, which they usually dispatch by biting them on the back of the head.
In fact, this age-old rivalry in the animal kingdom became widely known through Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 short story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”.
In it, a brave mongoose defends its human master against a menacing cobra.