It is believed this is the first time the killing of a hyena, one of Africa’s deadliest predators, by the continent’s largest snake has been witnessed.
This incredible footage shows the 13-foot snake coiling round the hyena, cutting off its blood supply and then manipulating its huge jaws so that it can consume every bit of 150-lb carnivore.
One slip by the ferocious African rock python would have been a death sentence, as the hyena’s jaws – capable of exerting some of the greatest pressure in the animal kingdom – could easily have bitten it in half.
Using speed, guile and a muscular body also capable of producing chest-crushing forces, the snake won the day.
Dutch holidaymaker Jos Bakker filmed the extraordinary death fight in a swamp area of Kenya’s famous Masai Mara National Reserve earlier this month
His footage has been screened by National Geographic who report that scientists in the area were first sceptical when they heard about the killing until they came across heavily bloated and sated snake.
National Geographic found the snake as it began the slow process of digesting its giant meal
Researcher Mike Kowalski said it was very rare that a python would tackle prey as dangerous to it as a large hyena, whose jaws Researcher Mike Kowalski said it was very rare that a python would tackle prey as dangerous to it as a large hyena, whose jaws would easily be able to crush its skull
Mike Kowalski, one of the researchers who found the snake, said it was very rare that a python would tackle prey as dangerous to it as a large hyena, whose jaws would easily be able to crush its skull.
Kowalski, a researcher at Fisi Camp, the field site of Michigan State University zoologist Kay Holekamp, a renown spotted hyena expert, says he has seen several clashes between “giant serpents and unsuspecting mammals” in his travels but has never seen one take on another carnivore before.
Explaining his early scepticism, the researcher explained how he and a fellow scientist were able to track down the snake digesting its feast, “resembling, as its namesake implies: a gigantic rock submerged in a swamp”.
He goes on to blog: “Through cross-references of the video footage, the discovery of a large rock python at the described location, and the condition of the snake, we concluded that this behemoth rock python did in fact kill and consume an adult spotted hyena.”
After checking the hyena clans being studied by the research team, it has been established the snake’s victim was a wandering male looking to join a new group.
He wrote: “This individual was likely ambushed and strangled to death as they wandered through the swampy culvert or neighbouring drainage pipes looking for a cool place to sack out for the afternoon, as hyenas are wont to do.
“Nevertheless, it is an incredibly impressive kill for this python.
“This snake obviously knew what it was doing as it is one thing to successfully bite an adult hyena, and another to successfully bite, cut off circulation, and come out of the fight unscathed.
“One false strike and that hyena could have easily turned around and crushed the python’s skull.”
The python will now spend the next few months hidden in a safe place digesting the hyena.