Watch hawk get rescued from death’s grip as two Florida deputies wrangle angry snake

One of Florida’s regal birds of prey had to be saved from an embarrassing predicament when its potential dinner — a snake — got the upper hand.

It happened Sunday, May 7, outside Gainesville, and it took two Alachua County deputies to break up what amounted to a death match on SW 103rd Drive.

“Deputies received a call regarding what appeared to be an injured hawk laying in the roadway of a residential neighborhood,” the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook.

Instead, deputies C. Dasher and L. Forero “arrived to find that the hawk was being strangled by a snake and that death for the hawk was imminent.”

Stranger still, crows had begun trying to attack the hawk, believing it was seriously wounded, officials said.

Body camera video shows the battle was playing out in the street and the 3-foot snake (believed to be a black racer) was clearly winning.

“The hawk is still alive. It’s moving its head, still blinking,” one deputy is heard saying. “It’s wrapped up in (the snake) pretty good.”

It took pinning the snake’s head to the pavement to get its body uncoiled from the hawk’s neck. However, the reptile fought back the entire time, tightening its grip on the bird and lunging at one deputy’s steel baton.

The video ends with the hawk taking flight the second it’s freed and the snake flying from the deputy’s hands into the road.

“Good job. Everybody wins,” one deputy is heard saying.

Alachua County Sheriff Clovis Watson Jr. lauded the deputies for going “above and beyond” for an incident that didn’t fall within the “normal scope of duty.”

Gainesville is about 70 miles southwest of Jacksonville.

This story was originally published May 8, 2023 at 11:01 AM with the headline "Watch hawk get rescued from death’s grip as two Florida deputies wrangle angry snake."