If you’re scared of snakes or wasps…look away now.
Blood-curdling new video footage shows the moment one of the reptiles attempted to devour another – while a huge, angry wasp proceeded to attack it.
University of Florida worker Evangeline Cummings recorded the eastern coral snake chowing down on a rat snake in her backyard in Gainesville.
The unfortunate rat snake appeared to be dead, amid speculation it had already been attacked by a hawk, then dropped onto the branches of a rose bush.
It was spotted hanging from the plant as the coral snake started work on eating it.
But moments later, the hungry predator faced its own challenge in the form of a large wasp that buzzed in and tried to attack it.
The snake was filmed thrashing in a bid to shoo the wasp away, without much success.
British children trapped in Syria ‘could become terrorists if not brought home’Cummings shared the clip on Twitter, writing: ‘Interestingly, this appears to be: a dead rat snake…and then both yellowjackets (thx for the fix) & the coral snake are showing up to devour it.
‘Don’t know how rat snake got there. Dropped by a hawk?
‘So many questions. And how does a coral snake climb the thorny rose bush!?!’
Doctoral student Natalie Claunch offered her take, and speculated that although coral snakes don’t make good climbers, the prospect of a free meal hanging from the tree would have enticed it up.
Cummings then revised her theory, adding: ‘So we’ve now settled on our favorite theory: rat snake was dropped by a hawk or similar and landed in the rosebush.
‘But the rat snake is somewhat twisted around the branches so I wonder if when it was dropped it was still partially alive and tried to free itself and could not.’
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