A jaguar’s brutal battle with a yellow anaconda has been captured by a wildlife photographer along a riverbank in South America.

Chris Brunskill was on a boat along the Cuiabá River in the western Brazil state of Mato Grosso when he witnessed the rare encounter.

The UK-based photographer said he was “very fortunate” to witness the “incredible” jaguar v snake encounter.

“This is by far the rarest of rare events in the life of the jaguar and I know of several people who have spent twenty years or more on the river and not had the good fortune to see what I saw last week,” he recalled.

“On this day we had left the hotel late due to rain and only pulled off from the jetty just after 9:30am on a cold, cloudy day.