High-Speed Video Captures Amazing Viper Strike in the Wild

For the first time, scientists have captured high-speed video of a viper striking at its prey in the wild. The infrared footage shows a Mohave rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus) lunging at a kangaroo rat (Dipodomys merriami) in the New Mexico desert. The coiled snake strikes swiftly and without warning, but the rat manages to twist its body midleap, narrowly evading the predator's venomous fangs.