Chameleons and snakes are like lions and hyenas there will always be a confrontation. But snakes usually have the upper hand!
Mine Manager, Casper Badenhorst, tells Latestsightings.com: “We were on the Voortrekker road, driving north, when we saw a chameleon in the road. I stopped to show our children what the chameleon looks like. While we were looking at it, I noticed that it had black spots which appeared and disappeared on various parts of its body.
It inflated and deflated its body, looking as if it was puffing up and releasing, probably about 15 times. After this, it ran off at its best speed (most certainly not usual chameleon strolling) down the road, crossing the snakes slither spoor and I could see that its hind legs were not functioning well, almost dragging. As it stopped in the middle of the road, a snake came out of the grass, slithered towards it and after looking at it for a few seconds, picked up the chameleon and slithered off with the chameleon in its mouth, disappearing into the grass next to the road.
It was apparent that the snake had bitten the chameleon moments before we arrived and then moved away for the venom to take effect while we approached. The snake made off into the long grass and disappeared, we could only see the grass moving about a meter into the bush for a few seconds more.
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We were very excited, knowing that this is a very rare sighting. Only minutes before this happened, my son was unhappy about having come to KNP so many times before (and this time flying all the way from far North East Australia) but never having seen a catch or kill in Kruger. For tourists like us, this is not likely a sighting that will ever be repeated, nor do many people ever get to see a wild snake catch something.”
