Amazing encounter watching this lizard biting snake. Snuggled up to tire after we stopped to look. (Not stuck or driven on!) Eventually all departed separately. Lizard ran down road full speed way up on its feet.

I have trouble believing this is a gopher snake. it looks very similar to a morph of of a king snake I saw a couple of weeks ago in the same area. the stripes are very pronounced and unlike a gopher snake. It looks like it may have been eaten by a great Blue heron. there were huge blue grey feathers next to the carcass.

Epic coot slap fight! 2 coots going at it nonstop for more than 10 minutes. 2 had some huge problem with each other and would rear up and kick at each other and peck/bite. Occasionally another 1-3 random passerby coots would come charging in and hit indiscriminately at either of the pair for a while before departing. Strange!

Videos:
1.) https://youtu.be/Tbt5NdC_w78 (many coots pile on)
2.) https://youtu.be/MEFFgCtecE8 (extended three-way slap fight)
3.) https://youtu.be/agt1JDt1Shk (end of the fight. this makes it look like one of the coots died, but actually it swan away underwater and re-emerged far away)

Found on beach by Dan Spach’s Wilderness Youth Project group. Turns out they were not the first to observe it, but at the time it seemed like it. So exciting for all the kids to experience first hand such a unique find!! WYP has said “we’re in the business of creating peak experiences.” This was certainly one of them!

Using a San Francisco Alligator Lizard as a pillow. There was no predation occurring here. The snake never acted aggressively towards the lizard. They just slept like this until the lizard wandered off.

Bamboo Pit Viper (Trimeresurus gramineus Shaw, 1802).

Habitat: It is found in bamboo groves and forests, usually near streams.

The range of this species has been restricted to southern India. It is also rarely seen near Harishchandragad and some other mountain ranges of Western Ghats aka Sahyadris in Maharashtra.

SURPRISED TO SEE SUCH A CASUAL YAWN, THANKS TO OUR CAMERAS THESE DAYS, THEY HAPPEN TO HELP IN SUCH MOMENTS, TAKEN WITH CANON 100-400MM SO HAD PROBLEMS WITH DEPTH OF FIELD.

in the absence of a trunk or stone to lean on, a capybara may be an option;
I have observed these two individuals do this twice;

see also
https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/nelson_wisnik/21258-the-friendly-capybara

Seen early morning outside my office front door, constricting a large gecko that, in turn, had a grip on the snake. Fortunately for the snake the gecko only had hold of a skin flap at the snake's throat, narrowly missing its trachea.
I placed an inverted basket over the pair so that the drama could play out undisturbed by foot traffic.
Later, when I removed the basket it was evident that the snake has prevailed. Only sign of the gecko was a lump in the snake.

A scrappy expanse of silky refuges and capture webs littered with body parts of previous victims. When preferred prey is entangled, the female spiders emerge from their 'nests' and overpower it by grabbing its extremities. In this case, a wasp https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319446.
Presumably they inject venom because after a minute or so the prey stops struggling. Then they snip it out of the web and carry it into one of several 'nests' or refuges.
Unwanted prey, often beetles (see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319435 ) are also killed but sometimes left in the web, uneaten. Ants, in this case, Maranoplus ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319390 )scavenge around the periphery of the webs, feasting on unwanted beetles or other left-overs.

This male was one of several dozen individuals on one of the main stems of a dying lacebark. I counted nine male/female pairs, some with a third individual (sometimes a noticeably smaller female, sometimes a male) which was usually chased off by the male of the pair. I got enough video to be able to confirm that the females appeared to be ovipositing. In addition, there were an indeterminate number of lone individuals roaming the trunk.

This series of images is another "National Geographic" moment that needs some explanation. The 11 folks on our photo Safari were divided among 4 safari vehicles...no more than 3 (plus the driver/guide) to a vehicle, so each photographer had access to each side of the vehicle. We were sometimes together, sometimes miles apart. Two of our vehicles spotted a distant Cheetah stalking 4 Grant's Gazelles. We could see the two vehicles about 1/4 mile away and we thought the Cheetah was perhaps headed toward us as the gazelles were moving toward us. Suddenly, from a long distance I saw the gazelles running fast though the tall grass and then I saw a cloud of dust. Three gazelles kept running but we did not see the 4th. The gazelles got 400-500 yards away then stopped to look back. The other vehicles told us the Cheetah had made a kill. When we got there the Cheetah had a small Grant's Gazelle by the throat while it still struggled a little. You could watch the Cheetah breathing heavily after its 5-8 second burst of speed to catch the gazelle. The Cheetah was a male and looked as if he needed a meal. We sat nearby for an hour as the Cheetah ate its fill. Just amazing to watch all this.

Serengeti National Park,
Tanzania
25 October 2018