Close call with a individual Cobra

Post by **Kevro** » January 11, 2012, 7:13 pm

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else has had any dealings with a Cobra.

I myself was just out checking our rubber trees from ground level to about 3 meters for any new growths when I noticed some movement on the extreme edge of my peripheral vision. I stopped and looked and there was a cobra around 2 to 3 meters away. It was sitting up as they do to around 60 centimeters in height with its head flared showing the 2 circles representing the eyes on the flared wings. It then hissed at me and my heart skipped more than just a beat.

I was carrying a decent stick for knocking off a few branches on the rubber trees that I could not reach so my first thought was to throw it at the Cobra. I then thought about clubbing it with the stick but then I came up with the most sensible option which was to back off slowly and then run like hell for a few meters and then turned around to see it was still in the same position watching me. I then walked back to the truck and sat in side to calm down a little. The heart was pumping and adrenalin flowing.

In hind sight it could have been 2 more steps and then I'm history. The car was only 50 meters away and I could have been at the Nong Wua Sor hospital in 10 - 15 minutes if I remained capable of driving. In checking the internet later death can be as quick as 10 minutes with a cobra bite.

Needless to say I am happy my peripheral vision still works.

Kevro

Post by **parrot** » January 11, 2012, 7:34 pm

We've had two spitting individual cobras within 15 feet of our back door in the past 5 years. In the first case, our dogs alerted on the snake which was under a large rock. At the time, we didn't know what kind of snake it was. I inserted a large bamboo pole under the rock (keeping a ??safe?? distance of about 7 feet).....and when the pole went under the rock, I heard a very loud hiss (spit). One of our dogs then stuck her nose under the rock and got an eyeful of spit. Eventually the snake came out and our dogs disposed of it by splitting it in half.
In the second case, another cobra, near our back door, but out in the open. Our 3 dogs surrounded it as it was in full cobra attack mode. Again, the same dog as before got an eyeful of spit before our dogs mangled the snake.
In both cases, we were able to wash out our dog's eye....lots of eye drops and red eye for a few days, but eyesight back to normal.
As for good periphery vision......a few months ago I was showing off some lightning bugs to a visitor when I noticed something unusual off to the side.....turned out to be 2 yellow kraits (yellow and black) mating. After reading about yellow kraits, I'm glad I didn't have a encounter of a close kind with them.

Post by **Kevro** » January 11, 2012, 7:45 pm

Hi Parrot

I reckon 2 or 3 steps more and I would have been bitten (and maybe history) as I was walking straight down the tree line but looking to the left to inspect the trees. I was wearing nothing but the Adda open shoes at the time so no protection. I had heard earlier about a neighbour who was wearing some nice thick wellies who got wacked on the leg and found a Cobra but his boots were thick enough to stop the fangs. Needless to say I have purchased some thick boots that come up to just under the knee but do I feel safer...absolutely not. First meeting with the Cobra was Monday and I went out again today but very carefully with lots of stops to scan the area I was to be walking.

Kevro

Post by **Stantheman** » January 11, 2012, 8:34 pm

Sounds like time to adopt a pet Mongoose take with you when you inspect your trees!

Post by **Peterplay** » January 11, 2012, 10:48 pm

Kevro, whydo you think it was a individual Cobra ? Was it the size ?

Anyway, whether it was a individual or just a 'normal' one, the story gives me the shits...

Post by LU » January 12, 2012, 6:39 am

In 1972 while stationed at Udorn RTAFB my friend and I were riding our bicycles along a perimeter road near the flightline. Ahead we saw what we believed to be a tree branch lying on the road...that is until it rose up and revealed itself to be a cobra

We put our bikes down and retreated - returning later to retrieve the bicycles after the snake left.

In 1985 while living in base housing at Kadena AB Japan I was mowing the lawn around our home with a gas powered mower. I observed a habu (cobra) come out of the brush and it was headed in my direction. Without thinking I ran it over (several times) with the mower. Hopefully that is my last encounter with a cobra/habu.

Post by **bumper** » January 12, 2012, 5:50 pm

YA I would be changing my shorts on that one. So far we haven't ran across any snakes on our new property. I would bet just a matter of time.

Me I would have left it alone as well. I don't know enough to try to handle them, distance sounds like a good idea to me.

Post by **greatsnake** » January 12, 2012, 9:06 pm

Kevro wrote:Hi Parrot

I reckon 2 or 3 steps more and I would have been bitten
Kevro

If the snake had wanted to bite you, then why did it hiss when you were out of striking distance? Wouldn't it have been better for the snake for you to have come within striking distance before it revealed itself, if it had indeed wanted to bite you?

Maybe it was just as afraid of you as you were of it?

Post by **Kevro** » January 13, 2012, 6:29 am

Hi Guys,

I'm sure the snake was sending out a warning by hissing and it certainly worked. Not sure if it was as scared as I was though.

The pet Mongoose for protection sounds like a good idea except the brother in laws would be drooling at the thought of Mongoose for dinner. They have done it before. Its a vicious cycle... snake eat man, man eat mongoose, mongoose eat snake.

Peterplay, did some googling on individual Cobras in Thailand and matched (Well tried to anyway) the image burned in my memory to some of the pictures. It was the false eyes on the side of the flared portion of the head that stood out to me. Having said that I don't know if the standard run of the mill Cobra has those as well. I Can't give a size for it though as all I looked at was the raised front end (Around 50cm from the ground to head) with the flared head. The rest of the body was in the ground cover and not visible.

One thing that stands out here in the village when chatting about it to the locals is the different attitude to snakes. I was brought up to avoid a confrontation with snaked of any kind and report it to local authorities. Here everybody kept asking me "did you kill it". Its just not any snake, its a Cobra (Maybe a individual). One slip up trying to kill it may cost your life yet here they want to make Tom Yum Ngoo with it.

Kevro

Post by **slotmh** » January 13, 2012, 7:09 am

very usefull website

http://www.thailandsnakes.com/

Post by **Kevro** » January 13, 2012, 7:33 am

Thanks slotmh

The Monocled Cobra is a nasty piece of work and more venomous than an individual Cobra. The Malayan pit viper is way up there on the snakes to avoid also as its the one most likely to bite. Won't move out of the way or make itself known like a Cobra, just bites.

I went back to the rubber trees on Wednesday after the close call on Monday. Now I am really worried about venturing out.

Kevro

Post by **Kevro** » January 13, 2012, 8:29 am

Here's another good site.

http://siamfoundation.org/snakes-thaila ... ous_Snakes

Maybe I need to change title to "Close call with a Cobra" as it could be one of the 3 types found all over Thailand with a fourth type only found down south.

Kevro

Post by **bumper** » January 13, 2012, 6:04 pm

Most snakes don't hunt humans they strike as a defence. We I believe are to big to swallow. My motto is stay away from them. Parrot did the dogs get bitten by the cobras and did they have a reaction to that?

Post by **parrot** » January 13, 2012, 7:22 pm

"Parrot did the dogs get bitten by the cobras and did they have a reaction to that?"

Our female dog had her eyes sprayed on two separate occasions. The first, the snake was under a rock and the dog stuck her nose under to sniff out the snake. Instead, she got an eyeful of snake spit. We washed out the eyes and all was well.
The second time, the snake was in full view, in full attack mode, and our female went in to grab it. Again it was sprayed......we washed it out, eyedrops for several days......things looked iffy with her reddened eye sort of back in its socket.....but after about a week, all was back to normal.
You'd be surprised how loudly a spitting cobra can hiss!

Post by **bumper** » January 14, 2012, 10:18 am

I once went to the Cobra village just outside on Khan Kean felt very uncomfortable with it all. Sometimes they have events with cobras shows no barrier between you and the snake I just keep on walking

Post by **lepidoptra** » January 14, 2012, 11:02 am

I learn something everyday. I 'googled' the internet and was surprised just how many different species of Cobra there are.
I was also surprised that an individual Cobra doesn't spit as others do. I just keep away from all snakes as I probably wouldn't know the difference between a grass snake or any other. Now if anyone would like to know about the metamorphosis of a moth or butterfly I can oblige. Hence my UM name.

Post by **Kevro** » January 14, 2012, 6:43 pm

lepidoptra wrote:I learn something everyday. I 'googled' the internet and was surprised just how many different species of Cobra there are.
I was also surprised that an individual Cobra doesn't spit as others do. I just keep away from all snakes as I probably wouldn't know the difference between a grass snake or any other. Now if anyone would like to know about the metamorphosis of a moth or butterfly I can oblige. Hence my UM name.

Hi lepidoptra,

Up here we have 1 of the 2 spitting Cobra varieties (the other down south only), an individual Cobra and the surprisingly more venomous Monacled Cobra. Smaller and more potent but an individual Cobra pumps more in to you.

I sound like an expert already. Only a google expert. Was back out checking the trees today and no Cobra in sight but I was a little jumpy with every little noise.

Kevro

Post by **redwolf** » September 25, 2012, 1:52 pm

parrot wrote:We've had two spitting individual cobras within 15 feet of our back door in the past 5 years. In the first case, our dogs alerted on the snake which was under a large rock. At the time, we didn't know what kind of snake it was. I inserted a large bamboo pole under the rock (keeping a ??safe?? distance of about 7 feet).....and when the pole went under the rock, I heard a very loud hiss (spit). One of our dogs then stuck her nose under the rock and got an eyeful of spit. Eventually the snake came out and our dogs disposed of it by splitting it in half.

In the second case, another cobra, near our back door, but out in the open. Our 3 dogs surrounded it as it was in full cobra attack mode. Again, the same dog as before got an eyeful of spit before our dogs mangled the snake.

what kind of dogs do you have that could dispatch cobras so readily?

sounds quite useful actually and perhaps the second reason why it might be good to get dogs. the first being security/warning against human intruders.

Post by **parrot** » September 25, 2012, 2:05 pm

The male has the dark nose, the female the long nose. They work as a team when they see a snake. I don't think I'd exaggerate if I said they've killed 40++ snakes over their 7 years, 2 large cobras that we know of.

They're soi dogs. We were driving down the side street behind Ban Chiang Hotel when my wife commanded: "Stop the truck. I want that dog's babies." Whose dog? Don't know. But I stop and she quickly determines the owner of the mother and finds the mother has 7 babies. The owner was pleased to give us 2.

Post by **redwolf** » September 25, 2012, 3:42 pm

@parrot,

nice, -they look like quite well fed & happy Thai Ridgebacks, maybe another breed, not sure 100%. it's nice to see what that breed looks like when they haven't been starved to the point of becoming garbage-eating kitten killers. I figured must be local breeds that fight/kill snakes because it's hard to think a pit bull or lab would even bother with a snake other than yap at it.

definitely might consider getting some of these, their DNA hard-wired for snake killing. are they the kind of dogs OK with being outdoors most of the time or do they frequent indoors as well? we have a big yard outside & shelter-able areas.

the reason I ask is we live alongside a canal (could be a klong except the portion near us is rather remote and low). on the canal side of the property wall, there's a huge amount of foliage and wildlife suitable, for any and all kinds of snakes & every kind of their prey.

am pretty sure we've already found freshly hatched baby cobras last June. with the kids growing up fast, & our love of gardening, etc., -better to think about the dogs now so they can work themselves into family/pack as youngsters & control the outside area as their "territory".