Snake Struggle at the River

Occurred on March 19, 2019 / Ballandeen, Queensland, Australia

Info from Licensor: "I shot this video on the Severn River which runs at the back of our property in Ballandean. I try to walk there every day and always have my camera with me and at the ready.

We are in a severe drought but had had some rain the day before this. So there was water in the rock pool that drew my attention, as I walked towards it I saw the little red-bellied black snake emerge from a crevice on the other side. I got my camera ready as I was hoping to get a video of the snake swimming across the pool. Then to my surprise, another larger snake appeared hanging on to the smaller snake's tail. They tumbled into the water in front of me and I realized that the larger snake was going to make a meal of the other. They wrestled and tumbled about at the waters edge for ages. The spotted black snake, the larger one, hung on to the other's tail and the red-bellied black, the smaller one kept biting him over and over. I could see he was injecting venom and damaging him but he wouldn't let go. This went on for about an hour with both snakes taking a rest at intervals and both tried to drown the other. Eventually, the strength of the larger snake won over and he dragged the red-bellied snake out of the water and up into the rocks where I could no longer see him. I went back the next morning but there was no sign of either snake, so I believe the spotted black snake ate the red-bellied black snake for dinner."