Nobody puts mama rat in a corner.

Especially not a hungry snake.

That's the lesson from a battle caught on video in Naples, Italy, last week. The footage shows a snake carrying off a baby rat, or pup, only to be attacked by the pup's mother.

Things end well for the rats, this time.

"Rats can be pretty ferocious, they are predators themselves and can kill things," says Dana Krempels, a biologist who studies small mammals at the University of Miami.

"It's a good thing rats aren't bigger, or we would be in trouble," she says. "They are also very intelligent."

The snake—which looks like it might be a type of non-venomous racer according to Krempels—probably wasn't big enough or tough enough to safely battle