Due to their immunity to venom, eastern kingsnakes can safely swallow larger timber rattlesnakes.

Timber rattlesnakes become a meal for eastern kingsnakes. Video: Georgia Natural Resources Agency

Tom Slagle, a resident of Haddock, Georgia, captured the unusual sight of two snakes fighting near a mailbox. Slagle starts filming as the kingsnake enjoys a meal. On June 8, officials from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources shared the video on Facebook.

In the video, an eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula) slowly moves its flexible lower jaw along the body of a stocky timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). Since the timber rattlesnake does not appear to move, the kingsnake most likely killed it before eating it. Timber rattlesnakes are typically 1.8 m long, while eastern kingsnakes are only up to 1.2 m long. The swallowed snake in the video is clearly larger than the kingsnake and could have been heavier.

Many snakes are capable of devouring prey larger than themselves, such as deer, cows, and even humans. However, this behavior generally does not include larger snakes because snakes tend to eat smaller ones.

Eastern kingsnakes are one of several snakes that prey on larger snakes, but their main prey is lizards, rats, birds, and terrapin eggs. This is a predator, it hunts by biting near the neck of the prey, coiling around the body and squeezing. Although they are not venomous, king snakes are immune to the venom of some of the more venomous snakes. This allows them to safely eat rattlesnakes, according to the University of Georgia.

Both species of snakes in the video live throughout the eastern United States, but some eastern kingsnake populations are plummeting. They are listed as protected species in the state of Georgia.