During a family trip to MalaMala Nature Reserve, South Africa, Ms.

Kristy DeLange accidentally recorded an extremely intense battle between two reptiles.

According to DeLange’s account, while reading a book at the Reserve’s guesthouse, she suddenly heard strange noises coming from a nearby garden.

Drawn by the unusual sounds, DeLange cautiously went outside to investigate and discovered a yellow-bellied sand snake and a lizard fiercely fighting.

“Both animals curled up together in a fierce battle for survival. Therefore, at first glance I could not distinguish which animal was the hunter and which was the prey. The tug-of-war between the two reptiles was extremely dramatic, each determined to gain the advantage for its side,” said DeLange.

The monitor lizard is an animal that looks fierce and ferocious on the outside but is actually gentle and shy on the inside. Normally, when it hears a strange noise or another animal approaches, the monitor lizard will immediately find a way to escape. However, when cornered, the monitor lizard will become unusually ferocious and ready to fight back against other animals that are larger than it.

Just like in the recorded clip, when attacked by a much longer snake, which is also a hunter of other animals, the lizard did not show any weakness but also had many sharp “tit for tat” moves.

There was a time when it seemed like it could escape, but encountering a “tough” hunter made the lizard fail. After about 2 hours of fierce fighting, the lizard was exhausted due to being tightly squeezed by the snake for a long time, obediently becoming a meal for the predator.

The clip ends with a scene of the snake slowly swallowing its prey into its stomach.

“We were all stunned when we saw it. It’s not often you see a snake swallow such a large prey. I guess in a few weeks, the snake won’t need to find any more food,” DeLange said.