‘Don’t bite me.’ Video shows Florida deputy trying to separate dueling hawk and snake

Hawks and snakes have notoriously bad attitudes, but that didn’t stop one brave Florida sheriff’s deputy from trying to intervene in a death match between the two natural enemies.

It happened Monday, Dec. 19, after someone called the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office to report an injured hawk flopping around on a sidewalk near Gainesville, about 110 miles northwest of Orlando.

However, Deputy Nick Aldous quickly discovered the hawk was tangled up in a long, black snake.

“Holy cow, you’re never going to believe this, but the bird was trying to eat a snake and the snake had strangled it,” he is heard saying into his radio.

Aldous decided to try to rescue the hawk, and he resorted to using towels to untangle them, his body camera video shows.

He did this while repeatedly pleading: “Don’t bite me.”

It’s not clear if Aldous was talking to the snake or the bird, but neither bit the deputy during the 90 seconds it took to untangle them.

His video shows the non-venomous snake slithering away, while the dazed hawk sits in the grass, wearing an expression that doesn’t suggest gratitude.

“I got it loose and the bird’s good and the snake’s good,” Aldous tells the dispatcher over his radio.

That’s when you hear the voice of Sgt. Kevin Davis, who was eavesdropping on the call.

“Unless you got it on video, it didn’t happen,” Davis says.

“Oh, it’s on video,” Aldous responds.

That video was posted Dec. 20 on the sheriff’s Facebook page, with a note that said, “Deputies never know what the next call will be.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 4:23 PM with the headline "‘Don’t bite me.’ Video shows Florida deputy trying to separate dueling hawk and snake."