Matt Metcalf

In 2016 (a decade ago 🤯🫠) I released a tagged male Eastern Indigo Snake for my master's thesis. Shortly after release, we were gifted with a glimpse into a rare look at Indigo behavior: male-male combat!

These two males were fighting each other for mating rights to a nearby female (also tagged for the study 😍). The video doesn't do it justice, but these combat rituals can be very violent and involve males rising up, wrapping around each other, and slamming their opponent to the ground. Once the winner was decided, he chased and pushed the losing male out of the territory and quickly came back to the burrow where the female was hiding.

To this day, it remains one of my most favorite nature moments! Indigos are incredible!!