alexanderr's Favorites

Two male molesnakes fighting for dominance and for residence of an unused molerat tunnel.

The black snake was the first on the scene but was ousted a week later when the light brown snake appeared.

The lighter coloured male won the wrestling and inflicted a gash across the black snakes body. Approximately a month later a chocolate brown female joined the lighter brown male in his tunnel.

To further elaborate: The black snake occupied the hole for a week before the light brown one appeared and they had their wrestling match. After this the black snake left and the light brown snake took residence of the hole. He then "patrolled" his small patch of ground around the hole for a month before a very large dark brown mole snake appeared and cohabited that hole with him for a few days before both snakes left. The lighter snake didn't appear to leave the area during this time and molerat activity continued in very close proximity to this (the molerats were "harvesting" my sunflower plants which can be seen in my pics) so I'm guessing very little hunting was happening 😊.

The lighter snakes' "patrol" area was pretty much a short circuit around my bietou bush approx 6m long, it was so predictable that I was able to crouch down next to his route in anticipation of him passing close to me. I filmed him as he slithered past at an arms length away. The third snake on the scene, the dark chocolate specimen, was larger than either the black or the light brown snakes. This snake was incredibly skittish and I only have the briefest video of it disappearing in a flash into the hole. This all happened on the edge of my driveway approximately 5m from my front door on a smallholding in Morningstar, Cape Town.