Cannibalism in the animal kingdom is not shocking as it is widespread in many species. For instance, female black widow spiders sometimes eat males after mating in a phenomenon called sexual cannibalism. But a snake eating another snake is uncommon, except when there is no other prey available.
Study after study finds more evidence about snake cannibalism as scientists found that cobras are top on the list of snake species that regularly consume their own kind.
Cannibal Reptiles: Snake Eating Another Snake Caught in A Video; Why Do They Eat Their Same Kind?
Black Snake Chowing Down Another Snake
A video from Tringlobe Media is making rounds on Facebook featuring a black snake eating another snake that spurred fascinating comments from the viewers. However, the location where the video was taken was not revealed and only the voices of men talking in the background could be heard.
An expert who viewed the video said that the snake being eaten was a "fer-de-lance" or a mapepire balsain (Bothrops atrox), while the black snake eating it was unidentified. But Loop News reported that researchers from the University of West Indies (UWI) said that it could be the nocturnal Black Cribo which is also known as the "huntsman's friend."
The snake is commonly found in Trinidad's forests and primarily feeds on mapepire balsain, which is one of the venomous snakes found in Trinidad. However, it has rarely been documented as wildlife experts have only spotted it a handful of times in the last three decades.
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Why Some Snakes Resort to Cannibalism?
Snake cannibalism has been recorded several times in many studies. Still, it is typically dismissed as an anomaly in snake behavior rather than evidence of a trend among the species.
But in the 2018 study, titled "The Underappreciated Extent of Cannibalism and Ophiophagy in African Cobras," published in the journal Ecology of the Ecological Society of America, researchers found that snakes make an excellent snack for other snakes. It turns out ophiophagy or snake-eating behavior is common among cobras.
The authors wrote that snakes account for 13% to 43% of all prey species detected in the diets of wild cobras, Live Science reported. More so, they found evidence of considerable cannibalism of the same species in which five out of six cobras they observed ate their own kind.
The authors speculate that this behavior might have something to do with sexual competition because in every cannibal event they observed, both the winner and the loser were males, and perhaps they were attempting to weed out sexual rivals.
On the other hand, organismal biologist Xavier Glaudas from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and his colleague Nicolas Fuento at the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux PACA, who were both not part of the study, told The Scientist that snakes engaging in this behavior are opportunistic feeders. They are reportedly motivated by a lack of prey and the elimination of competition.
Snakes That Eat Other Snakes
Ophiophagic snakes are found in the world and are not limited by region or habitat. So, which snake species eat their own kind? According to the website Oddly Cute Pets, these species include the following:
- King cobras
- Kingsnakes
- Black-headed pythons
- Mussuranas
- Indigo snakes
Below is another video of a snake eating another snake:
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