Clash Of Reptilian Titans: 28-Foot-Long Anaconda Battles Caiman

Two of Kingdom Animalia's most feared species went head to head in a no-holds-barred, survival of the fittest battle royale in the murky swamps of Pantanal, Brazil.

Kevin Dooley captured the action between a 28-foot anaconda and a 6-foot-long caiman crocodile in what could only be described as a clash of the reptilian titans.

One source said that Dooley was sitting in a boat eating lunch about 30 feet away when he heard “all of this splashing.” By the time he turned to see what was going on, the caiman was on the losing side.

“The anaconda just kept strangling the caiman. It had even broken all of the caiman's legs,” Latestly quoted the 58-year-old wildlife photographer as saying.

Dooley, a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was on a tour in Pantanal when he witnessed firsthand the “dramatic sight.”

Upon closer look of Dooley's pictures, the anaconda (Eunectes) had managed to wrap itself around the caiman (Caimaninae) and in the process, broke all of its legs. It wasn't a one-sided fight as Dooley pointed out that the crocodile was able to bite the anaconda.

Unlike cobras that use venom to kill its prey, anacondas are constrictors. They use their massive muscles to wrap around an animal and squeeze the oxygen out of their body before eating them whole.

“The snake managed to get away and slither out,” said the photographer and believed that the crocodile had died during the duel.

“I think eventually the anaconda ran out of oxygen and had to let go of the caiman,” Dooley said.

The fight lasted for around eight minutes, he added.

Dooley also mentioned that he had not seen the start of the fight and he “could not figure who attacked first.”

While most people would have run out of the water from the mere sight of one of these animals, Dooley's natural instinct to capture some of nature's rarest moments kicked in, and it proved to be in the nick of time.

“I felt very blessed and very lucky and somewhat sad for the caiman. I never thought in my life I would witness something like this.”

Dooley uploaded the photos of the epic standoff on his Facebook page.