TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — It was a sight straight out of a fantasy novel — a 3-meter snake entwined around the neck of an eagle on a mountain road in New Tapei's Gongliao District on Saturday (Sept. 9).
The outcome was never in doubt. The rat snake had cunningly outmaneuvered the powerful eagle, pinning it in a painful chokehold rendering it almost lifeless. That's when a pair of good Samaritans stepped in, per Liberty Times.
One was a hiker with a walking stick, and the other was a motorcyclist who kept his engine idling. They both took it upon themselves to intervene in the battle between earth and sky.
“It’s ok for them to fight, but not on the side of the road where they could both be killed by a car. I didn’t want it to end that way,” said hiker Wang Hao-yue (王浩宇).
Wang swiped at the snake with his hiking stick, attempting to stretch it out and immobilize the head of the snake. The motorcyclist proved braver, lifting up the eagle by its wings, carefully avoiding the razor-sharp talons.
A number of attempts later, the rat snake was forcibly untied, giving up its grip on the eagle's neck. Seconds later, the eagle soared away.
"I honestly thought the eagle was dead. It appeared lifeless, and then it just flew away,“ said Wang.
In folk mythology, the battle between eagle and serpent often involves the moral tale that "one good turn deserves another," relating to Aesop's fable of a farmer who freed an eagle from the throes of a snake.
