The greedy bird swallows the snake and the “victim” ends up strangling its neck until it has to vomit its prey to survive.

This intense moment unravels as a hornbill underestimates its victim and the dead snake fights back and chokes the bird – Was the meal worth the risk? This insane sighting happened just North of Satara in the Kruger National Park.

Bev Field, a 50-year-old house executive witnessed this intense moment during a visit and shared the story with LatestSightings.com: “We came across a family of southern ground hornbills foraging. There were 4 adults and 1 juvenile. We watched them for a while and then noticed that the juvenile was feeding on a snake and seemed to be struggling.”

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“We realized that the bird had swallowed half the snake and couldn’t swallow the rest or regurgitate the snake. We watched for about 45 minutes as the bird tired from carrying the big snake around, trying to get it out of its throat. It was a very big snake for the youngster. The interesting part for us was that the adults kept foraging and didn’t show any distress for the struggling juvenile.”

“They showed no interest in feeding on the large snake either. We would have thought that the mother would have stayed to help the juvenile. It would have been so easy for an adult to pull the snake out.”

“They kept walking hundreds of meters away despite the juvenile’s calls for help.”

“It was very hard to watch the bird struggle and we were heartbroken when we thought the bird was dying. Everything in us wanted to get out of the car and pull the snake out of the bird’s throat. Other than not being allowed out of your car in Kruger, we also knew that trying to help the bird could stress it more than it already was. It probably would have tried to fly away and exhaust itself further. A very difficult, helpless feeling.”

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“Suddenly the bird miraculously got up and managed to regurgitate the snake and then started the process all over again – tenderizing and pecking the snake to eat it all over again.”

“This was an extremely rare sighting – literally once in a lifetime and wonderful to have it right on the road. Everything in me wanted to help the bird, but this is nature and it needs to take its course. In the end, the ground hornbill survived without intervention.”

American students see a western rat snake wrapped around a large red-tailed falcon at the Texas Outdoor Learning Center.

At first, both animals didn’t seem to move, leading the students to think they were dead. They informed the staff at the center.

Both the snake and the bird held each other tightly for a moment before letting go. Finally, the hawk flew away and the snake crawled away.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation calls it a “battle to the death.”

The rat snake is one of the most common non-venomous snakes in North Texas. While these reptiles are not a threat to humans, they are famous for their clenched fists to kill their prey.

Meanwhile, red-tailed hawks usually eat snakes, rats, rabbits and other small mammals, birds and reptiles. They often see their prey from above, swoop down and use their claws to catch them.