by The croc is shown tossing and turning in the river with the viper clamped and thrashing beneath his powerful jaws. Despite an intense ꜰɪɢʜᴛ, the croc came off on top and taking the easy victory.
Captured in Yala National Park in Sri Lanka, the images were taken by Rishani Gunasinghe, a Patent Technology Specialist.
Rish said: “This was one such occasion. We came across a small waterhole by the main road that was home to a small croc, which most Jeeps seemed to ignore and pass by, crocs not being rare in the island.”
She recounted that she initially saw something small and white nearby, which caused her and the other guests to stop to take a closer look at what was going on.
Just then, they noticed an alligator put something white in its mouth and lifted it up to reveal a snake, and first, seeing only the underbelly and the enormous size, they assumed it was a python.
After a few quick photographs, she noticed the unmistakable chain of dorsal spots and realized it was actually a Russell’s Viper. Facing a Russell’s viper in the wild, one of the world’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅʟɪᴇsᴛ snakes, is truly a ᴛᴇʀʀɪꜰʏɪɴɢ.
However, with the great strength of the crocodile, the reptile was quickly defeated. The superb spins and tosses displayed by the croc in trying to ᴋɪʟʟ and ᴅᴇᴠᴏᴜʀ the viper, was quite a show and possibly a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.
“When I was taking the pictures, all I was thinking was getting both the croc and viper sharp and freezing the super-fast action as best as I could. Now I feel we were extremely lucky to witness such a rare event,” she shared.
“The Russell’s viper is an aggressive snake and in Sri Lanka, it is responsible for the highest snake ʙɪᴛᴇs, highest number of ꜰᴀᴛᴀʟɪᴛɪᴇs and it’s the second most venomous viper in the island. It is said to have the longest fangs of any Sri Lankan snake. It feeds mainly on rodents and other arthropods, so it’s hard to think it targeted a croc.”
