I haven't seen her get one, but the 8+ foot King Snake in my backyard eats snakes and rats and mice (from the "bumps" in her!). She's my natural "pest control"! 20 years ago, I had a King snake that was over 12 feet long , and scared a telephone lineman half-to-death when he saw her from up on a pole! I HEAR some big barn owls (dawn and dusk), but I can't spot them out-back. Yeah, I love critters...
That’s a young WDB Rattlesnake, showing typical behavior when attacked by a Texas Indigo (the blue snake). It isn’t hurt, it’s just fighting a losing battle. Incredible video.
Something wrong with that rattlesnake. It couldn't lift it's head off the ground. Video guy crippled the snake. It couldn't even rattle it's tail. Yeah, it was fighting a loosing battle.
Take a good look at the rattle segments. Only a few with each one slightly larger than the one behind. Shows the snake is young, still growing between each shed cycle. I doubt that snake is much older than one year old. Good side view of rattle around the 1:40 mark. Mature snakes have rattle segments that vary little in size between each segment. That’s what I based my opinion on.
@@johnmuir7304 segments on the rattle don't depict it's age. They often lose them or break them off. All they really show is how many sheds they have had since their segments were where they are.
Loved seeing blue indigos in Florida. Had one on our 9 acres when I was a teenager. They are beautiful snakes, and the bonus of knowing venomous ones didn't hang around.
Thats amazing. My wife used to ask me why did I get up so early to go hunting and I would tell her its not just about hunting, its about nature and life and all of the things you dont see from the couch. Thanks for sharing!!!
The rattlesnake is not injured prior to the indigo's attack. It's odd body posture is due to a defense mechanism rattlesnakes use against Indigos and kingsnakes called "body bridging". They lift the middle of their body off the ground and keep their head low to the ground in attempt to confirm their attacker.
I sorta thought it was to keep their head from becoming an easy target, back away as much as you can and maybe, just maybe it will leave it alone... Not so when the Indigo already knows you are it's next meal....
I suppose the rattler was already injured by the time filming started, but I have read that some venomous snakes (cottonmouths, I think) will perform "body blows" against king snakes to drive them away. They instinctively know their venom is useless and it does little good to bite in defense. VERY interesting video!
Seriously dude.... You caught some pretty cool shit on camera, and threw in a slo-mo bit, to boot. I'm no professional cameraman either, and given the circumstances of what was happening right in front of you... if it were me, no way would I have been able to get it on video even close to as good as you did. Well done, man. Awesome post!
Now I know why the diamondback rattlesnake tried so hard to retreat, i think it's one sick rattlesnake, very weak and wasn't able to 'defend' itself against the inglo snake that made a courageous and determined stride against the helpless rattlesnake. `And the minute one single bite, the rattlesnake died instantly. Usually there would be a battle, but I think that the rattlesnake was definitely very sick.
People need to stop complaining about the rattlesnake being injured prior to the footage being taken. Indigos of this size make quick work of rattlesnakes and this Indigo likely beat up the rattlesnake prior to this glorious footage or the rattlesnake instinctively knew it was outmatched; sort of like a Tyson opponent in the early 80's; it was over before the first bell rang. This is the best footage to date on an Indigo walloping a rattlesnake. Great job.
And also like Holyfield over Tyson. Holyfield was immune to Tyson’s bite and like the Indigo over the rattler, had no problem beating the PISS right out of him!
@JJB, WOW ! great video ! I thought maybe the Indigo had gotten in the first bite before this vid started. Have never seen any Texas Indigo before, that is One Bad Boy !! Thank you for the great videography !
Amazing video. Original content and thank you for the upload. I can understand we as a non snake handlers cant go closer to the two highly venomous snakes. Wonderful work.
Oh no. All Indigos and Kingsnakes have immunity of rattlesnakes venomous bites... All Rattlers will either run away or try to protect themselves from becoming a meal ticket. 😂 ...Rattlers know the kind of snakes that they possess. Moreover, in a imperious manner.
coyote slayer, precisely! It’s not worth leaving nasty comments-I don’t understand why people do that. Anyway, great point! Slay on, brother! How do you slay them? With the .22 WMR? .17 HMR? .223/5.56-banG!?? Coyotes are incredibly prolific, from my home Province-B.C. (🇨🇦) all the way through the USA & into Mexico. I digress...this is amazing footage. Thanks for pointing it out to the people who’d rather moan about it not being narrated by one of the 'Attenborough' family members. Peace✌🏼.
Fascinating footage, and thank you sharing. It's difficult to comprehend how snakes such as the Indigo Snake could develop virtual immunity to powerful venoms, and all the more so given the hemotoxic/cytotoxic nature of pit viper venoms.
M00nsplitter There are quite a few animals that are resistant or immune to venom. Indigos aren't immune but have a fair amount of resistance to the venom. There are species of rats, like the woodrat, that are totally immune to venom. Honey-badgers are another one.
Its amazing that its immune to such a wide variety of pit viper venoms since even Rattlers of the same species can have a different type of venom depending on the location they're found in, and Indigo snakes (as well as Kingsnakes) appear to be immune or at least semi immune to Coral Smake venom as well. Coral Snakes are Elapida related to cobras and not Pit Vipers like every other venomous snake species found in the Americas!
That Rattlesnake is/was not injured, it recognized it was on the menu hence it actions. It wanted to get the he,, out of Dodge. The Indigo is a snake eater. The Rattlesnake stood no chance against the Indigo.
I am not sure why so many people are giving this guy so much grief over his photography skills ? I give the guy a ton of credit for getting the footage he did get he never claims to be a professional wildlife photographer in fact his response was he is not and only used his phone to capture the video not very many people would have the balls to get as close as he did to a angry poisonous snake ?
I am getting dizzy and got vertigo, rolling my eyeballs all around the screen to follow his floating hands, loosing too often the scene. The guy has to greatly improve his stability when filming, otherwise it's like he's too drunk to make the movie.
AinzOoalGown Nazarick yep these guys are the true king snakes much more deserving of the title as even the mighty eastern diamond back cowers on fear of this beast.
Wow!! That is unbelievable! What a great video. After watching this I checked and found out indigos eat rattlesnakes because their venom doesn’t affect the indigo. I was wondering why the indigo was so brave. I’ve never seen a video like this before. Thanks for sharing.
I've lived my whole life in Texas and I've never seen a Indigo snake before. Their non venomous. You could tell that Rattlesnake knew he was in serious trouble. How did he subdue the rattlesnake?
@@user-ei3jm3cg4k School is now in session. If you had taken the time to just Google it you would be looking like a fool. So here is the the info. The eastern indigo snake is a species of large, non-venomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to the eastern United States. It is the longest native snake species in the U.S. Wikipedia . Now take your foot out of your mouth and run along and play or use Google before you make another foolish statement. Glad I could school you. 📔📕📗📘📒📓📃📄📜📑🖍✏
Every Indigo I've seen grabs victim behind the head restricting it's air and eventually take the head in it's mouth and swallows it's prey fairly quickly. Non venomous.
I think the theory is that the rattler is keeping its head area low as that is it's vulnerable area. Like it knows it can't kill the indigo, but it's trying to prevent the indigo from getting to its head/neck, cuz after that it's lights out. As you see as soon as the indigo coaxs the rattler to expose its head with a strike.
This is really some GREAT footage. My wife and I were working in our flower beds, changing out some shrubs when we had an Eastern Indigo zip across our path. It was about 18" long. About two years later, he was laying on top of one of shrubs soaking in the sun. By that time, he was about 6 feet long! It makes me feel good that they will kill venomous snakes. I'm in Florida and we have Eastern Diamondbacks and Pigmy Rattlers along with Cottonmouth and Copperheads. That's not to even mention the pythons we have in Florida! Luckily, they haven't gotten to Central Florida yet. Are the Eastern Indigos immune to the rattlesnake's venom?
Yes they are. They're immune to coral snakes as well. In fact snakes are some of their favorite prey they don't care what it is if they can catch it they'll eat it! But we are not food. We had them for years and although they'd hang around on our porch we never saw their teeth and I was always picking them up they got so used to me that they did not care. I actually believed they enjoyed being handled they made no attempt at all to "get away". they're absolutely beautiful and especially after they've just molted.
Interesting strategy by the indigo. He seems to deliberately provoke an attack by the rattler by biting on the end of the snake. Once the rattler is forced to bite in retaliation, the indigo goes for the neck of the rattler and it is come over for the rattlesnake.
Amazing, outstanding footage! Yes, Indigos are somewhat impervious to venom, but I believe this guy (the beautiful Diamondback) may have been injured. Whether run over or from the Indigo before the recording began. No rattle at all, and the way he was dragging his head. Just struck me as odd behavior from the rattler.
He is not injured that is viper body language showing fear. He didn't rattle so that he'd hopefully be more quiet. Also indigos and other snakes that eat other snakes do for the head so the rattlesnake kept his head low to keep from getting his spine broken. Common misconception for injury👌
@@Ramiiam dont most snake detect thermal ad imagery i kniw constrictors do as abacindas ambush out of the water and the surface displacement i doubt they could hit mutch seeing without thermal
More than likely, the indigo had already delivered a debilitating blow to the WDB and that's when the camera guy found them. They kill rattlesnakes by brute force.... bludgeoning them to death with their head. The rattlesnake isn't hiding its head. It looks lie its spine is broke. Also, rattlesnakes don't always rattle.
nope. it was just trying not to move and hide its head. that's it. it should have tried to escape when the indigo bit its tail, which is what it is there for... to attract attention away from the head. instead, it bit back, letting the indigo know exactly where the head was at... and that was that. indigo is a much much bigger, stronger snake. just bit its neck and broke it.
@@thomasneal9291 you nailed that on the head. That's exactly rite. As soon as the rattler bit the indigo it was a wrap for the rattler. He knew exactly where its head was. He bit down by the head walked his fangs down and ate him alive.
Rattler had its opportunity to be the agressor when it was coiled for strike better earlier. Often see the agressor snake that slides over its opponents neck has the advantage as it lifts to strike it weighs heavily on it and reduces its ability to get a strike in a more fragile area.
Chance to be aggressive? And do what exactly?? All they have is their venomous strike...but if the venom is useless, they have nothing to bring with that aggression. They're fucked essentially. Right??
Very interesting video. That Indigo took a bite. Usually older Indigos,kingsnakes, and coachwhips ect learn to go for the head of the rattler and don't get bitten. Cary in Tucson
Amazing footage and you did an excellent job even though you were filming from a boat. Just playing. Actually, you did do a great job catching something so spontaneous, enjoyed every bit of it. Thanks for sharing this video of natural survival. I hope it discourages people from haphazardly killing snakes, some snakes are beneficial to have around.
@@parrotbrand2782 All snakes bite Rattle snakes don't want any thing to do with man they only bite when they get stepped on or you surprised them people need to learned to live with venomous snakes even the harmless ones get killed. Children need to be protected and that can be done with out killing snakes.
I think it is very interesting how the Rattler was on the retreat from the beginning. How he keeps his head low to the ground and is always retreating. The natural reaction of a rattle snake is to coil up head held high for striking . I think he knew he had met his death before the fight ever started.
Jimmy Johnston is he though? Looks like a red-belly Black to me....no? Edit: I seem like the only one here that thinks so lol. But the red belly....dead giveaway no?
@@thomasromano9321 , and it had no doubt it could swallow the prey. If you noticed the Rattler was keeping it's head down to avoid what was it's fate, the indigo was fooled for a moment attacking the rear of the Rattler, until the fangs were used having no effect but exposing it's head.
Notice how the Rattlesnake kept its head low when backing off from the Indigo snake? I've only seen this behavior when trying to back away from Indigo and Kingsnakes, because if they held their head up high in the typical S shape strike pose, it would actually present its attacker with a clearer easier shot to its head because it would stand out more being darker on a lighter background and in flat country such as desert or prairie it would stand out even more held high as it would potentially have the sky for a back drop, whereas by trying to keep it lower to the ground it makes it harder for its foes to distinguish from the grasses and rocks and plants and it's own body and when defending against Indigo or Kingsnakes they try to protect their heads first and foremost and it is easier to jump backwards throwing coils of it's own body on top of its head to potentially deflect any bites away from the head and into the ground or the middle of the body which does the attacker no good since it has to swallow it head first. Anything else that attacks a Rattlesnake finds the snake with its head held high in an S shape pattern in its neck ready to strike out quickly from that position, hissing at the same time usually, I've even seen Northern Pacific Rattlesnakes do this and not even rattle!!!
The Rattle Snake was obviously trying to use its tail as a decoy and holding its head low to feint as a tail...hoping to get the first strike in and use its venom. It worked, he got a good strike, but the Indigo's natural tolerance to venom made this a lost cause from the start.
It was probably to not let it have a clear shot on its head because I don’t think it having its head high because the colors in the background would change anything considering they are dichromates and also can see the heat
Great video. You can screen through parts if you like. I wonder if the Texas Indigo is related in anyway to the King snake. King snakes have been known to take down rattlers due to their high tolerance. I wonder if the Texas Indigo is a type of King snake.
@david anthony that snake was definitely injured and semi paralyzed. That is what I was referring to. A rattlesnake defensive posture is tightly wound and prepared to strike not awkwardly dragging its head backward with a coil protruding up away from earth.
@@KennanClark You are incorrect. When a rattlesnake is threatened by another snake that plans on eating it, they respond by arching their bodies and trying to keep their heads away from danger. They know that biting a snake such as an indigo or kingsnake that is resistant to their venom is a last ditch effort.
Great video under the circumstances. Cell phone from a distance when you weren't planning on filming it would look like this. I wish we had a bunch of those indigo snakes where I live.
