Fight or flight?
A cobra and a mongoose treated an airplane runway like a boxing ring, viciously attacking one another and causing havoc in India.
The airplane’s takeoff was delayed after the pilot spotted the creatures scrapping on the tarmac in Patna, Bihar, as seen in a viral video.
The interspecies grudge match reportedly transpired at the Jay Prakash Narayan Airport, although the plane’s intended destination is currently unclear, Jam Press reported.
In the footage, filmed from the aircraft’s window, a cobra can be seen striking at a mongoose as the lightning-fast furball tries to dodge its venomous fangs.
The match seems pretty even until the cavalry arrives: Two other mongooses rush to their buddy’s aid, seemingly tipping the scale in the mammals’ favor.
While it’s unclear which combatant emerged victorious, mongooses generally have the advantage due to their supersonic-seeming reflexes, thick hides and natural resistance to cobra venom.
In fact, experts estimate that these cuddly-seeming critters win 75% to 80% of fights with their cold-blooded competitors.
Mongoose-cobra showdowns are quite common in the wild, where the two species vy for the same prey and also eat each other, the Economic Times Of India reported.
The snakes are known to prey on baby mongooses while mongooses hunt and eat cobras, which they generally dispatch by biting them on the back of the head.
In fact, this age-old animal kingdom rivalry became widely known through Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 short story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.”
In it, a valiant mongoose defends his human master against a menacing cobra.
