A Cottonmouth Attacking a Black Ratsnake

On 3 May 2014, my oldest son, Jack, and I were on the road approaching the south entrance to Snake Road (Shawnee National Forest, Union County, Illinois), when we encountered this, a Cottonmouth attacking a Black Ratsnake. Here is another view of our approach, emphasizing the great length of the ratsnake. Here is a closer view. Here is a close-up. And here is a close-up from the other side. Here is a shot of the poor ratsnake, struggling in the Cottonmouth’s grip. In the midst of all of this, I noticed that Jack had pulled out a lawn chair and was enjoying the show in style. So I decided to join him. But just as I was pulling my lawn chair out of the trunk, the ratsnake, amazingly, pulled free. Here is a shot of the Cottonmouth, heading into the swamp to chase down the ratsnake, which presumably had a lethal dose of venom, and would soon succumb.