What Is Wrong With This Picture?

A photo appears to show a child being attacked by a large snake as a cameraman stands by and films without assisting the victim. Some versions of the photo include the National Geographic. Is this photo real or is it a hoax? 

It is merely a re-enactment of an attack.

What we are seeing is a still photo from a Discovery Channel series called Nature’s Deadliest from 2008. This particular scene is from episode 4 entitled Africa 2. The scene shows a girl (not a boy as many assume) being attacked by an African Rock Python. Her friend goes to get help. A man wrestles the snake off of the girl, only to be killed in the attack himself.

Again, it is just a dramatization. We have included a couple of screen shots below from the same scene of Nature’s Deadliest.

The Discovery Channel began the show with a warning that scenes might be disturbing.

Here is the photo being circulated. In many cases, there are angry comments about rich vs poor and black vs white. Ironically, the entire dramatization appears to show a middle class white man dying while rescuing the child.  The National Geographic logo was superimposed on this image, and in fact has nothing to do with this image or television show.

scene of the dramatization shows a man coming to the rescue of the child, as he successfully rescues the snake off of the girl.

Things go horribly wrong for our rescuer as the snake turns its attention to him, and kills the man in the process.