Quick Take
- Africa's most venomous snake finds itself outmatched, though not by the predator you'd expect. See the snake's surprise →
- A lion stumbles onto what should be an easy meal, then thinks twice. Find out why. Watch the lion hesitate →
- Three apex predators clash in the same moment, yet none of them wins, and the reason is stranger than it sounds. See the three-way standoff →
- The deadliest animal in this standoff isn't the one doing the attacking. Discover the deadliest animal →
This video captures a remarkable encounter between three predators—a snake eagle, a black mamba, and a lion—that, momentarily, become prey before a ceasefire in which each one flies, slithers, or walks away.
It begins with what appears to be a dying snake eagle after its unsuccessful attempt to snatch a black mamba. However, as the video plays, it becomes clear that the snake is trapped in the eagle’s talons but also wrapped around a portion of the eagle’s body, which immobilizes the bird. And as the black mamba struggles to free itself from the bird’s clutches, a third predator arrives. A lion approaches cautiously, albeit hopeful for an easy meal.
Snake eagles are known to have a high tolerance or resistance to black mamba venom, a potent mixture of neuro- and cardiotoxins that when injected on prey acts rapidly. These birds also have thick, scale-like skin on their tarsi or legs, forming a kind of avian armor or shield against snake fangs. They use their talons to tightly grip their serpentine prey.
It’s unclear in the video if and where the black mamba may have bitten the snake eagle, contributing to its immobility. Regardless, the bird lies still, an occasional blink from its eye the only sign that it still breathes. The snake’s effort to wriggle itself from the eagle’s grip pauses and intensifies at the approach of the female lion. Now the black mamba struggles on two fronts.
As highly opportunistic feeders, even in environments where their preferred prey is readily available, lions rarely pass up an easy meal. The lioness here is no fool, however. She is aware of the snake’s potential danger, but she is still eager to fill her belly with not one but two vulnerable species. She swats at the snake, attempts to intimidate it, and tries to grab the eagle’s wings with both her paws and mouth several times.
After several minutes of back and forth between the lioness and the black mamba, the lioness successfully makes contact, tossing the snake and the eagle a few feet from where she first encountered them. This moment seems to spark a change in the priorities of both the snake and the eagle. The snake eagle perhaps had been holding on in hopes that it would eventually be able to overcome the venom, overpower the snake, and eat a good meal. For its part, the snake likely wanted to rid its environment of a pesky predator.
In the end, however, their fight for their own survival wins out. The snake eagle releases its grip, and the black mamba unwraps its body from around the bird’s body and slithers off. At this point, surely the lioness is content to settle for just the bird. The snake eagle, however, is not going quietly into the lion’s mouth. It pops up and immediately stretches out its wings in a stance of warning, stunning the people recording the encounter. “Oh, my gosh, the bird’s alive,” says the woman behind the camera. After a few moments, the snake eagle takes flight, and the video camera follows it as it lands atop a tree.
