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Watch venomous snakes wrestling for wormlike creature in epic tug-of-war battle

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First-of-its-kind footage captures a rare tug-of-war battle between two venomous coral snakes competing for wormlike prey. 

In the video, the two red-tailed coral snakes (Micrurus mipartitus) wrestle over a slimy caecilian — a limbless tropical amphibian — pulling back and forth to win the meal. This is the first time that food theft, known as kleptoparasitism, has been recorded within the venomous snake family Elapidae in the wild.

The observation was documented in a study published March 22 in the journal Herpetozoa.

The observation was documented in a study published March 22 in the journal Herpetozoa. (Image credit: Henrik Bringsøe)

"It was breathtaking because I knew it was a unique observation!" lead author Henrik Bringsøe, a herPetologist and previous chairman for the Nordic HerPetological Society, who witnessed the behavior, told Live Science in an email. 

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Herpetologists stumbled upon the rare behavior while searching for amphibians and reptiles in the rainforest of western Colombia at nightfall. The battle had already begun when they arrived.

Herpetologists stumbled upon the rare behavior while searching for amphibians and reptiles in the rainforest of western Colombia. (Image credit: Henrik Bringsøe)

"We suddenly saw the two coral snakes in an energetic comPetition or combat for the prey which was a rather unusual amphibian called a caecilian looking like something between a worm and a snake," Bringsøe said.

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