She was so brave.
It might be said that a mother’s love is a universal phenomenon – but you don’t often imagine that applying to what recently happened between a rat and a snake.
“Today while I was returning home, I witnessed this amazing act of love from a mother,” wrote Rojas Montecinos Envy on her Facebook page.
She filmed the whole incident, which shows a snake trying to slither away with a tiny baby rat.
But the mother wasn’t having any of it. She was quick on his tail, biting at the snake, determined to save her baby’s life.
Her efforts were relentless, and the few tense seconds seem to last a lifetime, as the fate of her baby hangs in the balance.
Finally, in a flash, a little gray spot is released from the snake’s jaws and lies motionless on the road. The snake hurries away into the bushes.
As the mother approaches, the little gray spot starts to move. She hovers over her baby for a moment, before picking him up and scurrying off the road.
By the end of the video Evy shot, it’s hard not to breathe a sigh of relief. But The Dodo wanted to make sure the baby was actually OK, so we asked an expert.
“There isn’t enough information about where the video was taken and/or close enough images for me to identify the snake with much confidence,” David A. Steen, assistant research professor at Auburn University Museum of Natural History, told The Dodo. “However! Venomous snakes like pit vipers generally strike and then let their prey wander off and die. That’s not what’s happening here.”
That glimmer of hope is enough to put our minds at ease.
“It was a moment of much distress and emotion,” Evy wrote.
You can say that again.
Watch the full clip below: