Wildlife Photographer Captures Dramatic Battle Between A Rattlesnake And A Bobcat
Anastasia Arellano
Wildlife photographers are used to capturing all kinds of footage of various wild creatures thanks to motion-activated trail cameras. It's how they manage to capture incredible photos of wild animals doing things that we might never see for ourselves.
For wildlife photographers, such as Robert Martinez, certain moments become mundane in a way as they become used to seeing wildlife on a regular basis. And Martinez, who has been capturing photos and videos of wildlife living in the Los Angeles mountain area for about 8 years, has become quite accustomed to the daily life of the forest.
But every so often he'll still capture scenes that are dramatic. And a recent example of this was a very climactic showdown between a bobcat and a rattlesnake. The epic battle was filmed in the Angeles National Forest, and as Martinez described it, it was a "real nail-biter" of a battle.
Photo: In the video, viewers can watch as the bobcat is walking along only to hear the rattlesnake's iconic rattle. The snake continues to rattle and hiss before it lunges an attack towards the bobcat. But the bobcat ends up swatting away the snake with quite exceptional agility.
The two animals then become embroiled in a life and death fight that lasts several minutes with the bobcat ultimately winning the showdown. The bobcat manages to claw the rattlesnake in the head before delivering the final deadly blow. After the victory, the bobcat carries the dead snake off. But then several moments later, the bobcat re-emerges from the bushes and returns to where the fight took place only to engage in some strange behavior: it rolled around in the dirt.
Photo: Facebook / Robert Martinez
The video was shared by Martinez to his Facebook page, where his followers took an interest. There were many comments on his video, including some that praised the big cat's dexterity. Martinez spoke with the TV station CBSLA, saying that he filmed the footage on one of his many motion-activated trail cameras. Martinez said he has about 20 of the cameras set up throughout the Angeles National Forest. And over the years that he's been doing this, Martinez has seen it all from mountain lions to bears. But this is perhaps one of the more dramatic scenes.
Of course, he is hopeful that videos such as this one will help to peak peoples' interest in wildlife and hopefully get people to appreciate the natural beauty surrounding them.
Check out the fight scene below:
