A mother rat determined not to let a yellow-bellied snake slither off with her young engaged the reptile in a bitter war, chasing the creepy crawler across a road and nipping at its tail, video posted to Facebook shows.
The 50-second video, which has been viewed 18 million times since it was posted to Facebook June 26, shows the rat clinging to the snake, wrestling it on the pavement until it drops her baby.
The snake slithers into the grass by a guardrail, the mother rat hot on its tail. Both disappear from the video frame for a few moments, then the mother rat is seen stalking the edge of the grass, appearing to search for the snake, as her stunned baby starts to scurry around behind her. The mother then trots back to her baby, puts it in her mouth and scampers away.
It's not clear where the video was captured but more than 2,500 have commented on the mother's rat ferocious fight to save her offspring.
Facebook poster Rojas Montecinos Evy wrote on his page in Spanish that it was an "amazing act of love of a mother to your little one." He called it a "moment of distress and so much emotion."
