'Massive battle': Large king cobra tries to eat smaller one at Windsor Nature Park

It's a dog-eat-dog world out here, but for snakes.

Wildlife enthusiasts visiting Windsor Nature Park recently encountered an epic fight between two king cobras which ended with the larger one dragging the smaller snake away, likely to feed on it.

One Instagram user, Ang Jun Yang, shared the incident on Sunday (Dec 8) on the platform, with photos showing the larger snake with its jaws around the smaller one's neck, with bite marks and blood visible on the latter. They can also be seen coiled around each other in battle.

"I was alerted on Facebook of a sighting of a huge king cobra swimming in the stream at Windsor Nature Park. The king looked to be in hunting mode and I was hopeful it may linger around," wrote the 26-year-old doctor. 

His friend was the one who managed to spot the snake, and Ang added: "It looked like it had caught something but we couldn't quite make out what it was feeding on.

"I backtracked around four to five metres and, lo and behold, there was an even bigger cobra on land and it was locked in with a massive battle with the smaller king cobra.

"Shortly after, it managed to heave the entire small cobra out of the stream and on land."

King cobras are the largest venomous snakes in the world and mainly eat other snakes. They can be found in Singapore at the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Kranji, Sentosa and Pulau Tekong, according to the National Parks Board (NParks).

Ang told AsiaOne that he estimated the smaller snake to be around two to 2.5 metres long and the bigger one to be 3.5 to nearly four.

"Given the massive difference in size, one would think the smaller snake would roll over and be eaten, but it did everything but that, putting in a strong fight all the way from 1.15pm till the time I left at 5.30pm," he shared in his Instagram post. 

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Another wildlife enthusiast going by the name of Prashanta Kumar Mohanty stayed longer at the scene, until the park's closure, and shared his experience on the Facebook group Herping the Globe.

"When I reached the spot, I could see the big king cobra was trying to swallow the small one, but both of their heads were stuck with some [leaf] litter," he wrote. "After a few minutes of struggle, it released the small king cobra but never left the place."

He added that the snake appeared to go into the stream to rest and drink some water.

"Later it came back to the spot and pulled its prey inside the bushes. By that time, it was almost near to 7 pm (park closing time) and hence we had to leave the spot."

Ang told us that the smaller king cobra was still alive when he left, but according to his friends, it may have died or been close to it by the time everyone else had to leave as it was lying motionless.

"My friends who were the last to leave told me that the smaller cobra was subdued, not moving but the swallowing hadn't begun."

He shared that it was an "amazing and jaw-dropping experience for sure".

"It's a 'lifer' (first time seeing an animal) for me so that's big, but seeing two king cobras in a day in the wild fighting it out was truly remarkable," he added. 

"On top of that, the battle and tussle went from water to land then back in water before going back to land, so it was truly a show and an absolute spectacle."

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drimac@asiaone.com

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