A couple of people are condoning this behavior with this man who regularly free handles his hots by saying ‘he’s very gentle’ and ‘he’s just giving him nice pets’.
This is a King Cobra. (Ophiophagus hannah) Do NOT free handle king cobras. I do not condone it and I will explain to you why. They are the longest venomous snake (maximum being 18ft, but 13ft is usually average) and are capable of striking out at 1/3 of their distance and holding nearly half of their body in the air (that’s 4ft of striking distance and 6.5ft that they can hold themselves vertically). They are a massive animal, and easily the most intelligent snake I have ever had the pleasure of working with.
Their venom is not the most toxic in the world, but it’s nothing to scoff at and probably one of the more dangerous hots people keep in captivity. The venom is neurotoxic with a special toxin called a haditoxin, unique to kings. This has some medical properties but it also means you need king cobra antivenom specifically, whereas some snake bites can be treated with more general (less expensive) antivenoms. The LD50 Toxicity is 1.31mg/kg intravenously. If you don’t understand LD50 it’s basically smaller numbers are worse, because it’s how little of the toxin you need to kill 50% of tested individuals (usually mice). The LD50 of Arsinic is 15mg/kg. Cottonmouth is 25.8mg/kg intravenously. King cobras are certainly toxic, considering they will inject up to 7ml of venom (usually 200-500mg). For a 150lb person (68kg) they need 89mg to be lethal.
“Dry bites” are something that doesn’t really happen. Scientifically there’s not a lot of evidence for it and it’s mostly hearsay. Every person I know that has been bitten by a venomous snake has needed antivenom. It can happen rarely that not a lot of venom is injected but even the action of biting will expel venom to some degree.
The more intelligent a snake (and yes, different species do have different degrees of intelligence) the LESS predictable those snakes are. There’s a reason king cobras are not chosen often by snake charmers (even with mouths sewed shut). Monocled and other true cobras are more predictable. The scariest thing to me about king cobras is their ability to recognize specific people an act differently towards different humans. That’s a level of recognition that isn’t often evident in reptiles.
Let’s talk a little about Grace Olive Wiley.
She was one of the first women in the Herpetological field and did a lot for the field. While I appreciate all she did and her work, she was incredibly careless. She was a strong voice for venomous snakes and said that just because a snake was venomous didn’t mean it was inherently more aggressive. This is absolutely true! The problem is that even the most docile and regularly handled snakes (venomous or not) can and sometimes do bite. There is always a risk there because animals, even the generally most predictable, can turn or have a bad moment. It’s why reptile educators prepare for it every single day even with animals we’ve known for decades. There’s ALWAYS a chance. Unfortunately for Grace Olive Wiley, she passed away when this chance happened and her Indian cobra bit and killed her in 1948. An animal she was comfortable with and knew for years.
Don’t free handle venomous snakes. Don’t risk your lives when it is entirely unnecessary, and don’t risk the hobby and the dangerous image you could possibly create for snakes. They’re feared enough and enough accidents happen with properly-handled hots.
(P.S. I’ve seen a ‘venomoid’ green mamba produce venom when biting a hook and there is research to suggest venom glands regrow. So if it’s a venomoid, which it doesn’t look to be from first glance, it’s still not safe.)
There’s been some suggestions around tumblr, based on shading, that this is actually CGI. Something about the (lack of) shading on the underside of the snake on the 1st GIF, plus the uniformity of the matte surface on the other gifs, makes me think that might be the case.
I’ve seen these suggestions too. It’s not CGI. I’ve seen videos of this person before and he posts them publicly. Nothing about the pictures looks off to me, but I am used to seeing snakes like that move. They are naturally very smooth in their movements, it doesn’t mean it’s fake.
A few people were wondering what Grace is holding in the picture. It’s a picture of her holding “Queen”, her female king cobra.
(Also hah on the HoTs thing. I’m a healer, myself. I’m just used to using both in different places..)
