VIDEO: Footage of a Snake Regurgitating Another Snake

Whether you are terrified of snakes or actually find them to be amazing creatures, there is something that we can all agree on.

Snakes are interesting creatures that never stop surprising us with their capabilities. Even the snakes that aren’t of huge measurements can hunt, choke, bite and swallow whole creatures that are really big and really tough.

Seeing two snakes fight to the death is weirdly fascinating, assuming you are at a safe distance or preferably behind a computer screen looking at a video of the whole thing.

But in case you didn’t know this about them, snakes will eat just about anything and this means that they don’t shy away from eating their own brothers and a snake eating a snake is just a day to day thing.

According to nationalgeographic.com, a roadside sighting of a snake in Texas yielded a jaw-dropping surprise for Christopher Reynolds and his wife. Nestled under some leaves, the sizeable snake seemed to have something poking out of its mouth.

Indeed, not long after Reynolds turned on his camera to capture the scene, the snake regurgitated another snake of comparable size. Even more shocking, the eaten snake emerged alive.

Theorizing that the presence of humans spooked the black snake into giving up its meal and retreating, Reynolds noted it was the prey snake’s “super, ultra, lottery-lucky day.”

How often does it happen for animals to get such a glorious chance at life? Usually when you have been swallowed chances are you are going to die in horrible pain, suffering for quite some time until you are digest completely.

While it isn’t yet confirmed what types of snakes are seen in the video, this isn’t the first time such behavior among serpents has been caught on film.

In January, an eastern brown snake, one of the world’s most venomous, startled a woman in Australia by devouring an entire carpet python on her patio. And a python in India was filmed regurgitating a recently eaten antelope.

Reynolds may be right that his presence caused the snake to eject its meal. Snakes will do that as a defense mechanism, according to Kenney Krysko, a herpetologist and collection manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville who talked to National Geographic about the antelope footage last year.

Snakes don’t chew and instead need time to digest their swallowed meals. But the extra weight and bulk can then slow them down.

“Anyone who keeps snakes knows you should leave them alone after they eat, because you can make them regurgitate,” Krysko said.

Reynolds confirmed the video was shot in Newton, about 150 miles from Houston. He says on YouTube that when they spotted the snake on the way back from visiting his mother, his wife suggested he shoot some video: “I am happy I did.”

Truth is that even though all of us have our phones on us all the time we rarely get to film or take pictures of the weird and interesting things that we see.