Seeing a jaguar in the wild means you’ve pretty much peaked, but most photos of the beautiful cat are usually hastily shot before it slips back into the jungle.

That’s what makes Chris Brunskill’s photos so incredible – not only are they crystal clear, but there’s also a battle to the death going on at the same time.

Chris was boating along the Cuiabá River in the western Brazil state of Mato Grosso when he got lucky.

These words and pictures via the Telegraph:

“This is by far the rarest of rare events in the life of the jaguar and I know of several people who have spent twenty years or more on the river and not had the good fortune to see what I saw last week,” he recalled.

“…we spotted a jaguar walking in the open along the top of the riverbank when something in a patch of long grass caught her attention. I was only half paying attention at this point when she flicked her paw into the grass and out came an anaconda!”

No word on whether eTV intends to turn this into a movie it then shows for the next 20 years, but we move on.

He explained the rivals fought for around 90 seconds in a battle to the death, with the “snake lunging at the jaguar several times” during the confrontation.

“It immediately fled from the jaguar who promptly chased it down the bank into the shallow water at the river’s edge,” he added.

“With both the cat and the snake clearly visible, I had the unique opportunity to shoot as they fought for close to ninety seconds in the open, in good light on a fairly calm river, just metres from my boat.”

But the jaguar was the winner of the contest after several ferocious bites to the snake’s mid-section.

“The snake managed to bite it on the nose more than once before it was eventually subdued by the big cat,” he added.

“With the reptile’s strength fading, the jaguar bit through its tail before jumping back up the riverbank with the stunned anaconda dangling from its mouth.”

And to the victor belong the spoils.

Rumour has it snake tastes like chicken, but you can go ahead and explore that avenue without me.

[source:telegraph]