Rabbit vs snake! Brave bunny takes on angry serpent and comes out on top after 10-minute battle in Colorado wildlife park that ends with the reptile slithering away

Aggressive: The angry bullsnake is one of the largest species in America and is known for its territorial and aggressive nature, seeing any large mammals as a predator and attacking. When it comes across this rabbit, the snake, known for its bad attitude, does what its nature tells it to and attacks. But the brave rabbit, which you might usually expect to flee, stands its ground 

Fight or flight? The fight was captured in the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Denver , Colorado, where the snake's first thought was to strike out at the animal, which looks at least twice its size. Rabbits would usually run away from bullsnakes, which count them as one of the staples of their diet, although this one stood its ground and fought off advances from the aggressive serpent

Bravery: The serpent lunges at the rabbit, launching its fangs towards it in the hope of getting a grip on the mammal so the constrictor can squeeze the life out of it. But the rabbit dances around the strikes, expertly dodging its efforts in a life and death battle that lasted around ten minutes but could have proven fatal

Paws for thought: The snake looks as though it has got a grip on the rabbit's front feet in a number of the photos, but the brave mammal continues to evade it, jumping back in the nick of time before the bullsnake can get a good grip on it, which would have meant almost certain death for its floppy-eared foe

Face off: This is the the fierce gaze that the opponents give each other before commencing another round of the ten-minute battle in the nature reserve, that seems uncharacteristic for a rabbit. The photographer believes that the rabbit must have been a female with young nearby which is why she went to such great lengths to stop the snake advancing

Circling the enemy: The rabbit seems to walk around the snake (left) in this strange dance of death that sees both animals trying to get a good position that will offer them the upper hand. The snake sits back in a coil from which it can launch its spring-like attack. But the rabbit stays on its toes so it can dodge the snake's strikes

Not today: After ten minutes of trying to catch the rabbit, the snake is eventually forced to abandon its attack and slithers off into the long grass, the rabbit having successfully defended its territory. It's an odd result that defies the usual rule of the food chain in which bullsnakes are the hunters and rabbits the hunted