SNAKE EATER

On the gravel plains at the foot of the dunes near Sossusvlei, a Karoo sand snake (Psammophis notostictus) catches a Namib sand-diving lizard (Meroles anchietae) in the full heat of late morning. The lizard is built for speed and for disappearing into the sand the instant something goes wrong. Neither trick works this time. It's caught out in the open, and it doesn't go down easy. For the next half hour, the two of them are locked in an actual fight. The lizard claws at the snake's flank, and at one point gets its jaws into the snake's neck, opening a wound that's still visible frames later. The snake keeps working it into its coils and turns it head first, but the lizard's legs are still kicking, still finding grip, right up until there's nothing left to fight with. By the time the two of them end up in a tangle of dead branches, the outcome is settled, but both animals are carrying the marks of it. This isn't a clean kill. It's two animals built for the same desert, doing what they're built to do, and one of them just happens to lose. These five frames are shown in the order they were taken and are drawn from a longer predation sequence, from early resistance through to advanced ingestion. No animals were captive or baited. This was found and shot in the wild, without any interference. Heartfelt thanks to Rambo Uaraavi for guiding me through Namibia, sharing his knowledge and passion, and making this work possible.