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A viral video of a wild deer chewing a snake has garnered millions of views and left netizens in disbelief. On June 11, a user named @susantananda3 took to their Twitter handle to share a 21-second video. It shows a rare sighting where a ruminant can be seen eating the reptile and looking directly into the camera as the passerby records the unusual sight.
The video left several internet users astonished, mainly because these animals are considered herbivores, i.e. an organism that mainly eats plants. In the caption, the user, who supposedly works with Indian Forest Service, wrote that digital technology like cameras are "helping us understand nature better."
The video was shared by several other social media users, one of them was stunned and wrote:
Twitter reacts to deer eating snake video
After the unusual video of a deer eating a snake went viral, Twitterati was left in disbelief. Several users expressed their shock at the video and questioned how it was possible since these ruminants are herbivores. Others demanded research to be done on the animal, with one of them suggesting there's no rule of nature.
While speaking to news outlet Outdoor Life, Matt Ross, the director of conservation of the National Deer Association discussed the viral video, and said:
“Deer have been known to eat animals. There’s research out there showing that a very small percent of some their diet could be songbirds or eggs … not at a population level but an individual deer or small groups of deer. Their teeth are made to be plant eaters, and 99.9999 percent of a it's diet is going to be vegetation.”
According to a report by National Geographic, ruminants like these have been observed displaying carnivorous tendencies in the search for crucial minerals like calcium, salt, and phosphorus.
This behavior is especially prevalent during the winter months when the availability of plants is restricted. This modification enables the animals to make up for any nutrient deficiencies that they might encounter in their herbivorous diet.
After the bizarre video of a snake getting eaten stunned the internet, another bizarre video of a giraffe, which is also a herbivore, chewing a bone for phosphorous, resurfaced on the internet.
As per National Geographic, the tallest herbivores in the world, giraffes simply drop the bones after they feed on the bones for calcium and phosphorus. They are also known to consume fallen antlers, ivory, and horns to complete their nutrition deficiency.
