An amazing video of the confrontation between a brown snake eagle and a king cobra was recorded in area H7, near Satara in Kruger National Park, South Africa.
In the video, the large brown snake eagle swoops down to the ground and starts walking to approach the king cobra. The king cobra did not run away, it raised its head and stretched out its neck in challenge.
The eagle uses its claws to hold the snake’s body, then uses its beak to pull the snake’s tail, but it seems very superficial. This confused the king cobra. It was bewildered, and didn’t seem to know how to react to the eagle.
The brown snake eagle did not aggressively attack the king cobra, perhaps because it was still keeping an eye on the presence of humans. It slowly attacked the snake while looking up at the camera. Finally, the brown snake eagle spread its wings and walked away, leaving its prey bewildered.
The brown snake eagle (Circaetus cinereus) is a fairly large bird of prey in the Accipitridae family. It is found in West, East and Southern Africa. Brown eagles hunt almost exclusively snakes. A very solitary bird, the brown snake eagle has a long breeding cycle and raises only a single young.