Beware: It's a snake-eat-snake world out there

THIS 1.2m western brown proved why he is one of the deadliest snakes in the world when he took on one of his own in the Top End.

This amazing photo shows the writhing reptile trying to devour an orange-naped snake, known as a moon snake, as it coiled in defence, wrapping around its killer's body.

Territory couple Karolynn and Derek Maurice captured the unusual clash between the snakes in the car port of their Marlow Lagoon home in Palmerston.

"It majorly freaked us out as we lost a friend to a western brown in Alice Springs a few years ago, and my 15-month-old son Cale was riding around on his trike there not even an hour earlier,'' Mrs Maurice said.