Black mambas are fast, aggressive, and very venomous. Despite this, they’re surprisingly shy and skittish around humans. However, one safari-goer managed to capture some extremely rare mamba-on-mamba action.

The incredible behavior was captured by Kirstie Bowers in Pilanesberg National Park in North West Province, South Africa.

It’s easy to mistake this for a courtship ritual. But while this behavior is more common during mating season, it is actually a fight between males for dominance called plaiting combat, Kenneth Krysko, of the Florida Museum of Natural History, told National Geographic.

Black mambas are found in southern and eastern Africa and can grow up to 4.3 meters (14 feet) long. They’re one of the fastest snakes on land and can slither at up to 20km/h (12.5mph). Just two drops of their highly toxic venom can kill a human in less than an hour. This, along with their temperament, has understandably gained them a feared reputation and there's a fair amount of mythology surrounding them.

Nevertheless, these twiddling fights are very rarely deadly to one another. The snakes’ aim of the battle is to exert dominance by making the other submit, for which they'll gain the "mating rights" with the female who took their fancy.

^{Video used courtesy of National Geographic}