Look There's A Snake In Our Yard

Being a herper, if you see a snake crawling around in your back yard, your first idea may be to catch it and check it out. It might even seem especially appealing an idea if the snake is an albino. Hopefully you will think again because caution may be the prudent thing to exercise.

It seems an albino monacled cobra (Naja kaouthia) is on the loose in Thousand Oaks, CA (source). This is not one of those frantic fantasy reports of a loose exotic animal, this report has been accompanied by both photographs of the snake and of an instance of a dog apparently having been bitten by it (the dog is supposedly okay). Authorities are urging folks to stay away from it if they spot it; they are also trying their best to capture it before someone is bitten by it. Chances are though, if someone is bitten by it, it will be because they attempted to handle it or because they have cornered it. These normally are not aggressive cobras and usually flee when threatened but will certainly bite in defense if cornered or handled. Their venom is mainly neurotoxic and deadly.

My son and wife once spotted a snake crawling along side our garage. My son was about to pick it up but I told him to hold off until I could get a flashlight to illuminate it better to make sure it was safe (it was just after dusk and darkening quickly). Turned out that it was a Yellow Rat Snake, certainly not a native NY species so it must have escaped from somewhere. I knew from where it had escaped, mine had been missing for at least several months. Since it was early spring, I can only deduce that it had overwintered by bromating outside, or in my basement unseen, and had made its way outside on what was the third day of that year with temps in the eighties. Had it been outside before that day, chances are we would never have seen it again.

You can probably safely bet that the cobra on the loose in CA is also an escapee either from a zoo, or from a personal collection. When dealing with venomous species extra care to their security must be given. They are often kept in locked enclosures which are themselves kept inside of double doored, locked, virtually escape proof snake rooms. Right now the priority in CA is catching the snake. Once it has been captured, my guess would be that the priority will become finding out who is responsible for it getting loose.

All the best,
Glenn B

All the best,
Glenn B