There’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that the whole thing went down so quickly, the snake probably never even felt a thing. The bad news is that I’ll never be able to not check under big rocks for killer snapping turtles.
I’m not entirely sure where this took place, but it looks to be somewhat of a local hangout spot considering there are other people hanging out on the water. A person farther down the stream can be seen chilling on a rock, and the man shooting this video seems to be perched up on a big boulder as well.
The commentary for the video is a little strange, to say the least. The guy sitting atop the rock is weirdly excited to watch the snapping turtle hunt down the snake.
As the camera zooms in, we see a snake sunbathing on a rock that is sitting just above the flowing stream. Clearly the snake is just having a good time, soaking in some summer rays, like most of enjoy doing.
However, the camera zoom also reveals a snapping turtle lurking in the water below the darkness of another, close by rock. I’ll go ahead and say that I wasn’t a huge fan of snapping turtles to begin with, and this clip all but confirmed that feeling.
The turtle sees that the snake is distracted, and as the running water masks the sound of the snapping turtle’s movement, the shelled creature sinks below the water’s surface like a ninja and begins to approach the snake.
A couple of fast paddles get the snapping turtle over to the resting place of the snake, and after taking a second or two to line up the attack, the turtle strikes at incredible speed and brings the panicking (and probably dead) snake down into the water.
Who said turtles were slow?
The guy filming the video was clearly “Team Snapping Turtle,” because he said this as the whole thing went down:
“Yes, yes, get the snake, get the snake. Get it. Yes!”
Like I said, a little strange, but maybe the guy had been sitting there for a while waiting for the moment to play out.
Take a look:
Instagrams users in the comments were surprised by the turtle’s sneak attack as well, saying:
“Some National Geographic s**t right here.”
“Wasn’t expecting that.”
