WATCH: Desert kangaroo fends off rattlesnake attack
In this remarkable video, a desert kangaroo rat is seen fending off a rattlesnake attack in Yuma.
It comes from a team of scientists who conduct research on the behavior and conservation of small mammals and reptiles.
The scientists traveled to the Sonoran Desert in Yuma back in 2016. While there, the team caught 32 brawls between desert kangaroo rats (Dipodomys deserti) and sidewinder rattlesnakes (Crotalus cerastes). This footage revealed the rats’ defensive moves.
These attacks happen at lightning speeds, and high-speed cameras offer a first-look at how these kangaroo rats dodge these attacks from snakes.
The findings were published online on March 27 in the journals Functional Ecology and the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.
