Released in 2020 and watched millions of times, this short video gives us a fascinating insight into the lengths that Mom animals will go to to protect their babies. The maternal instinct is clearly powerful for this mother hen as she chooses to take on a King cobra!
Mom Chicken to the Rescue
This starts off as what looks like regular cute footage of a chicken with her chicks in a back yard. But if you look closely at the bottom right of the screen you will notice something sneaking along the low garden wall. Out of the shadows emerges a snake. You may not have noticed it but the mom chicken sure does!
She paces towards the snake to confirm that her suspicions are correct and then goes back to her chicks. Making loud warning clucks, she paces around herding her chicks into a corner. Then, she goes back to the snake which has made its way across the yard and is getting closer to her and her family.
The cobra is startled by the chicken and raises its head in an attacking posture and this triggers similar confrontation from the hen. She spreads out her wings to make herself look larger, clucks loudly and leaps about. Meanwhile, the chicks cower in a corner of the yard.
©Roberto 33/Shutterstock.com
Snake Drama in the Back Yard
King cobras usually eat other snakes but if food is scarce they would certainly resort to eating chicks. The snake lowers their head again and remains still whilst the hen herds her chicks together again. However, it is not long before the cobra is on the move again. As it gets closer to the chicks it triggers another frantic response by the chicken – one little chick nearly gets trampled by their own mother! With the mother distracting and attacking the snake, the chicks move as a group to another corner of the yard. It seems to be a hopeless situation because the chickens are trapped in the yard and the snake is showing no signs of giving up. However right at the end of the video, the snake appears to climb up a wall and leave the yard. Perhaps it has decided that this meal is simply not worth the hassle!
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