Most wild animals know that trying to kill a snake is just a suicide mission of peer pressure but there are very few types of snakes that are more respected and feared in the jungle than a cobra. In its own territory, there are very few animals that have the guts to fight a cobra let alone defeat it, and eat it for dinner.
Mongoose is one of the very few animals that can plunge a spear of fear right where it hurts the most at the center heart of King cobra. But before we talk about how a mongoose fights, defeat and eat cobras for dinner perhaps we should take a step back and talk about mongooses in general.
For thousands of years, mongooses have been evolving into 20 species and adapting for life in the jungle by developing comforting features depending on the climatic conditions in which they live. So the mongooses have different colors and sizes depending on the region but the majority of them the share following characteristics. They are long-bodied, short-eared Weasley-looking animals, strong jaws and thick hides, they are quick and agile some of which attack and eat venomous snakes.
But how can a skinny mongoose take on one of the most venomous snakes in the world? King Cobra can kill an adult human being in just 30 minutes by one fatal strike. Mongoose has strong jaws and thick hides to block those scary cobra fangs. They are also quicker and agile than a cobra and most importantly they are like a pig, they are not afraid to wrestle. In contrast, cobra is a shy animal and doesn’t want to wrestle with another animal unless it was absolutely necessary to do so, it prefers to walk away in almost all cases.
It’s not impossible for a mongoose to get sick or even die from a cobra bite but a small bite will only give it mild symptoms which manifest hours after the attack. This great advantage turns the focus of the winner takes all battle into three traits – – the strongest, the faster, and most resilient will have the other as dinner and in almost always its King Cobra on a braai stand at the end of the day.
