Rare sighting of cobra killing and eating skink in Sabi Sand

Posted by Anita Froneman on 24 June 2021

Going on safari does not always mean just spotting big game. Jors Dannhauser spent some time in the northern parts of Sabi Sand on a farm in Buffelshoek, when he came across an unusual sighting of a Mozambique Spitting Cobra battling it out with a skink, and later eating it. 

“At first, we saw the snake… so we approached very slowly. Then we spotted the skink – we knew we were in for some action,” he told Latest Sightings. 

“The snake was spending a bit of time looking over its prey, maybe analyzing how it was going to go about the hunt. But, after much thought, it went in for the bite. Within no time it was victorious, the paralyzing venom was too much for the skink’s body and it was unable to get away, although it tried!” he added. 

“Once the skink was paralyzed, the snaked started swallowing it whole. And, after a mere few minutes, the cobra had swallowed the whole skink and was happy to disappear back in the tall grass.”

Skinks, a species of lizard, are found in many countries around the world and in Africa, striped skinks occur in eastern Africa, south to the North Eastern Cape, extending along the Orange River to the Richtersveld, and west through Zambia to Angola and Southern Namibia, according to Siyabona Africa.

Fun fact: Skinks in the genus Prasinohaema have green blood because of a buildup of the waste product biliverdin.

Take a look at the fascinating encounter:

Pictures and video: Jors Dannhauser






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