Fight or flight?

A cobra and a mongoose treated an airplane runway like a boxing ring, brutally attacking each other and causing chaos in India.

The plane’s takeoff was delayed after the pilot saw the animals fighting on the runway in Patna, Bihar, as seen in a video shared online.

The interspecies dispute reportedly occurred at Jay Prakash Narayan Airport, although the intended destination of the aircraft is currently unclear, Jam Press reported.

Footage shot from the plane’s window shows a cobra grabbing a mongoose as the lightning-fast creature tries to evade its venomous fangs.

The game seems fairly even until the cavalry arrives: two more mongooses rush to their buddy’s aid and seemingly tip the balance in favor of the mammals.

It is not clear which fighter emerged victorious, but in general the mongooses have the advantage due to their seemingly supersonic reflexes, thick skin and natural resistance to cobra venom.

In fact, experts estimate that these cuddly-looking animals win 75 to 80% of fights with their cold-blooded competitors.

In the wild, clashes between mongoose and cobra are common. The two species compete for the same prey and may even eat each other, the Economic Times Of India reported.

The snakes are known to prey on baby mongooses, while mongooses hunt and eat cobras, which they generally kill by biting the back of the head.

In fact, this ancient rivalry in the animal kingdom became widely known through Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 short story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.”

In it, a brave mongoose defends his human master against a threatening cobra.