Rat Cheats Death as It Battles Hungry Snake in Epic Fight Viewed 19 Million Times

Animal lovers have been going wild for a video showcasing a spectacular fight between a snake and a rat.

Footage of the epic face-off surfaced on social media this past Saturday, November 6, after being posted to TikTok by gaixinh81663932 and later shared on Twitter by syedaliff. At the time of writing, the clip had been viewed more than 19 million times across the two platforms. The video can be watched here:

Filmed at night and presented in slow motion with added sound effects for an inspired extra touch, the video begins with the rat standing motionless near a coiled up snake.

A second later the snake comes to life, launching an attack in the direction of the rodent. His rat adversary is ready though, leaping vertically to avoid the reptile's bite.

The video then cuts to another instance of a rat evading the clutches of the snake - and even finding a way to fight back. As the reptile launches yet another attack, the rat is able to roll his way out of trouble before landing a brilliant two footed kick to the snake's face.

Undaunted, the snake turns to try and bite the rat's tail but in a stunning split second moment the rodent is able to spring his way out of trouble again, jumping to safety in spectacular style.

The footage then moves to another confrontation between the two species. This time it appears as though the snake has the upper hand, with the rat seemingly stuck in the reptile's jaws.

However, once again the rodent finds a way to escape, kicking the snake away before it is able to sink its teeth into its fur. The video then ends with a clip of a rat kicking dirt in the face of a coiled-up snake.

A stunning glimpse of nature in action, the rat's efforts saw many fans dub the animal the "real Master Shifu" in reference to the animated character from the popular Kung Fu Panda movies.

The footage is actually the work of a group of student researchers affiliated with the Laboratory for Animal Behavior Research at San Diego State University, the Higham Biomechanics Laboratory at UC Riverside, and the Chiricahua Desert Museum.

According to their website, their research focuses on "the behavior and conservation of terrestrial vertebrates," specifically small mammals and reptiles. "A lot of our work is on interactions between predators and their prey, events that are central to the lives of most animals in nature," they said.

The video that has recently been doing the rounds is actually a super cut of several different encounters between kangaroo rats and rattlesnakes in the Mojave Desert in California.

The researchers captured the footage by following the movements of rattlesnakes and setting up high speed cameras in locations where the reptiles adopted ambush coils.

All of the interactions were recorded at night and filmed at 500 frames per second using two synchronized Edgertronic high speed cameras.

The video playback was also slowed down 30 times to make it easier to see the specific movements of the animals involved. While each interaction spanned 30 seconds on video, in real time they often took place in less than one second.

The results were shared on their website, ninjarat.org, a name the researchers gave to the kangaroo rats they encountered after witnessing their "lightning quick evasive jumps and ability to re-orient themselves in mid-air, kick snakes out of the way, and then right themselves to land on their feet."

Newsweek has contacted ninjarat.org for comment.

Earlier this week, dramatic footage of a battle to the death between a Bobcat and an Alligator surfaced on Reddit, where it was watched by over 1.7 million people.

Meanwhile, there may finally be an answer to the great debate over who would win in a fight between a crocodile and an alligator.