I have a mate from England who’s convinced he’ll die if he comes to Australia. He conceives of Oz as this beautiful, sun-kissed landscape of death: where we have snakes in our bed, redbacks in our toilet seats and great whites in our swimming pools.
In my experience, it’s a fairly common perception of the Great Southern Land. And I’ve got to say: Australia’s not exactly doing itself any bloody favours of late.
Forget the perennial shark attacks, which seem to occur with greater frequency every summer. Forget that video which emerged last week of a brown snake pigging out on a python. Forget that even kangaroos, our own national emblem and the veritable poster-boys of our wildlife, are trying to strangle our dogs.
None of the above epitomises the infernal horror of Australia’s natural fauna quite like this, the latest in a spate of reasons to stay the fuck away from the land down under: a redback spider duelling with a red-bellied black snake.
The footage shows the baby snake entangled in the spider’s web, thrashing about as the ice-cold arachnid sinks its fangs into its neck. Sabrina Besselsen, who captured the mythical clash of the titans in Kurrajong Heights, New South Wales, sums it up pretty neatly in her commentary: “Holy shit. The two main things I hate in life are together right now.”
Yep. This is pretty much Sauron versus Voldemort levels of evil right here– and the fact that a spider the size of a thumbnail can murder a venomous snake in your back shed is “really scary actually.” Sabrina confirmed that the serpent did indeed lose out in the diabolical fight to the death, making the spider the undisputed lord of the underworld.
Ranger ‘Mick’ Michael Tate, of the Australian Reptile Park, told Daily Mail Australia that this kind of showdown is “a rarity to observe.” He added that “If you were lucky enough to observe this, don’t intervene. Baby snakes are just as toxic as adult ones, so just stand back and let nature take its course.”
‘Lucky’ is a bit of a stretch, Mick– and if this is the course nature’s going to be taking from here on out, then we’ll have off this ride bloody right now.
Feature Image: YouTube
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