![]() ![]() In each case, the kills are thwarted by human saviors who conveniently come upon them or hear the animals’ cries in time to prevent carnage. They’re all variations on a theme: An eagle attacks a snake, a crocodile attacks a duck, snakes attack pet cats, dogs, lizards. Several years ago, animal welfare groups first started noticing that videos of fake animal rescues were proliferating on YouTube. To Auliya, the only things that appeared real were the mistreatment of the animals being forced into these situations and the stress it must have caused them. Pythons also are nocturnal hunters, yet this video and many like it were shot during the day. But pythons first bite prey animals to anchor their constriction-something that didn’t happen in the gibbon video, Auliya says. The video seemed to suggest that the rescuer had arrived just in time to save the gibbon. “It’s so obvious this is fake, but people believe it,” says Auliya, a herpetologist at the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig. The traumatized gibbon cowers, covering its head. Hurriedly, he uncoils the python, freeing the gibbon, and carries the snake offscreen. A man in a blue soccer jersey and jeans appears. The panicked primate was fighting for its life as the snake, coiled around its torso, began squeezing. On Auliya’s screen, a Burmese python, a constrictor that normally kills birds and small mammals, was locked onto a gibbon. “This is something really nasty,” he said. ![]() But last month, staring at a YouTube video in his home office in Bonn, Germany, the reptile expert threw his glasses down in disgust. ![]() Mark Auliya has no problem with snakes attacking other animals. ![]()
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