A gull and a snake at Ambergris Caye
There are dozens of shabby wooden piers jutting out into the waters of Ambergris Caye in Belize, like giant staples holding the island in place on the Caribbean Atlantic. The sea is clear enough that the underwater life can be observed from up on the jetties without disturbing it. I had spent many an hour gazing at rays and nurse sharks gliding around in the shallows from up there, my feet dangling over the side of the warm, chipped wood.
My eyes were fixed on a large gull scouting around for an easy meal. Its eyes flicked from rock to rock, presumably for crabs or small eels taking refuge in the expanse of bay behind the natural breaker of the reef that lay about half a kilometre out. The seagulls in London have always looked to me like disaffected youth, ugly outcasts amongst the pigeons and other city-dwelling birds. Here, however, the gull looked natural and almost majestic. Its hooked beak and heavy wings apt for the job at hand. The pastel yellow, white and matt grey plumage dazzled against the surrounding blue. I watched it filter around with its round head underwater, wings held aloft in periscopic balance.
All of a sudden the gull thrashed at the surface in nervous discovery. It pulled up out of the water holding aloft a large sea snake, which whipped and coiled around its neck and belly. I let out the excitable gasp of one witnessing a violent exchange, and my fellow pier-bar revellers rushed to form a ringside crowd.
It was entirely unclear at the start of the bout which creature was attacking which. The gull was out too deep to profit from its leg power and was struggling to wade itself backwards towards the thinner shallows. The mass of the snake was far too bulky to lift by flight. This bout was to be fought on the ground, in salty trenches. A wing was pinned under the coils in any event. The one remaining free was flapping listlessly against the dark brown scales of the serpent. The gull’s only hope at this point was that it had the head of the snake in its beak. Would this starve it of enough essential oxygen and turn the tables in the gull’s favour?
They disappeared underwater. We were convinced it was game, set and match to the snake. There was barely any of the gull’s white and grey form visible beneath the body of its adversary, although the wing still confirmed signs of life. What seemed like minutes passed, surely too much time for any bird to be held underwater? A stingray swept into view to examine the scene, but departed as a disinterested referee. We continued to watch in morbid fascination with how the serpent would consume its bounty once devoid of life. I felt the nauseous pinch of nature’s cruelty mix with the onlooker’s urge for spectacle.
At once, they broke clear of the water! The gull had miraculously freed its other wing. It pounded the surface in a double-oar action that gave it enough power to inch its way back towards the beach, in spite of the coiled grip around its throat. Close inspection established that a good deal more of the snake had disappeared during their spell underwater. The head must have been near to or at the gull’s stomach. The tides had turned, although the serpent’s body was still in animated motion.
Over the next ten minutes the gull heaved and twisted its way up to the sand, incrementally ingesting its foe. Centimetre by centimetre the snake shrank. At what point it died was unclear, but when its body became only a tail it was obvious that the bout was over. The final strip was slow to disappear. I thought it would be slurped up, like a ribbon of pasta; the seawater flicking off like tomato sauce into the face of the victor. Instead, it hung in dead weight while the gull lay on its back, stomach already stretched to capacity.
It was the best part of an hour before the gull was able to fully finish its meal, and another still before it took to the air in the hardest-won of contests. By this time the crowd had long since dissipated, but I stayed to watch until the very end. Given what had happened before, I half-expected the snake to burst out of the stomach in a final beastly twist. Thankfully, I was spared this witness.
