It was an unlikely setting for such a battle: a college campus in the concrete jungle that is Singapore. But the two combatants seemed oblivious to the terrifying strangeness of the scene.
Python versus cobra -- the fight was on.
Passers-by on Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University campus were shocked last Thursday when what’s believed to be a reticulated python and a king cobra began “fighting” each other on the street.
Channel NewsAsia reports that the reptile wrestling match went on for about 30 minutes before the highly-venomous cobra, estimated to be around 10 to 12 feet in length, finally “escaped to the bushes.”
PhD student Abhishek Ambede told the news outlet that at one point in the fight, the python “had constricted around the cobra’s head.”
According to The Straits Times, pest control officers managed to capture both snakes.
The python was caught at the site of the fight (you can watch its capture in the video above); while the cobra was nabbed hours later.
The cobra was reportedly relocated to a zoo, while the python was released into a forested area nearby.
Ambede said in a Facebook post that the cobra is believed to have bitten the python during the encounter.
“Its chances of survival” are thus “very low,” he wrote.
Despite being largely covered by concrete, highways and skyscrapers, Singapore is home to many snakes, including several varieties of coral snake, pit viper and cobra.
A 2014 The Straits Times report said that pythons -- non-venomous constrictors -- are the most common type of snake in Singapore.
Though big, pythons are typically shy creatures that stay away from humans. They're still potentially very dangerous, and best left alone if spotted in the wild.
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