Snake Man' loses his cobra

They look like they are really deadly, but they are not (according to scientists/herpetologists ....although the natives who live around them are adamant that these snakes are killers ....choose who to believe). Some amateur herpetologists think it is a cool snake to keep since they look exactly like a 'Naja' cobra (the 'real' thing), but are nowhere near as dangerous (according to herpetologists again). Would I let one bite me? No! But based on most scientific evidence they are not dangerous, and there are no known medical cases of human bites from Water Cobra bites ( ...but also note that there are no known cases of bites from the Australian Fierce snake, the world's most venomous snake ....and furthermore most people killed by snakes in the African bush never make it to a hospital) . Futhermore captive Water Cobras have problems even killing mice fast enough with their venom, which brings certain questions on venom efficacy (although their venom is pretty effective on fish ....a weird thing since venom that can kill fish quickly means it is fast acting to prevent the fish from escaping, and thus would denote a potentially deadly snake ....but when it comes to mice it doesn't work that fast).

But anyways, would I let one bite me? No way. Why, did i not say there is no scientific proof of Water Cobra venom being dangerous? Well, the reason is because of one snake ....the BoomSlang. Natives used to say the Boomslang is deadly, just as they say the so-called 'harmless' Water Cobra is deadly. But many of the herpetologists and scientist types that were in Africa then were saying that the Boomslang was harmless since it was rear-fanged and its venom was 'weak.' (They should have noted that Boomslangs kill and eat birds, and venom that has to work fast on birds ...which would otherwise fly away ...is a strong indicator of potency). Anyways, the so called 'harmless' Boomslang killed the most reknown herpetologist of that time, and further analysis of its venom showed its potency is greater than that of the Black Mamba.

Hence I would not let a Water Cobra bite me ....particularly a large one. If the natives say it is deadly it is probably for a reason, and the fact that science has no known bites from the cobra mean that the snake has a huge gray area that i would rather not explore personally. But with that said it is not exactly an aggressive snake, and there are worse snakes to play with (eg a Naja species like Naja Nigricollis, the Black Necked Spitting Cobra, would be a far worse snake than the Water Cobra. And the exotic venom of the Black necked, which is neurotoxic, hemotoxic and cytotoxic, would thoroughly mess up a person even if he survived. Another bad Naja cobra would be the Naja Haje ....Egyptian Cobra. I know a herpetologist who was killed by that one. He was collecting a rather large specimen, i think it was almost 7 feet, and he had it caught perfectly. But it wrapped itself around his arm, and for some reason he released his grip for a moment and got struck. Died.) Other bad African cobra species to keep are the Naja Nivea (Cape Cobra), which is the most venomous species of cobra; obviously the other spitting cobra species (eg the Red and the Mozambique, as well as the Rhinkals), and then there is the Forest Cobra (which i personally had problems with).

Oh, there are some cobras called 'Tree Cobras' (2 species) that used to be termed as 'not dangerous to humans' by Western herpetologists, even when the natives were adamant that they were dangerous. Well, in the past decade their venom has been 'discovered' to be quite dangerous to humans. And this 'discovery' is pretty DUMB since for one the people who lived around those snakes were saying plainly they are dangerous, and secondly any snake that targets birds has to have a potent venom. But until quite recently the 2 Tree Cobra species were said to be harmless to humans. This is another reason (added to the Boomslang case) why I am highly suspicious about the 'harmless' Water Cobra.

But with that said there are far worse choices, the Water Cobra is not a Naja species, and if this guy gets killed by his 'harmless' snake then at least the scientists will finally accept what the natives have been telling them for quite some time. LOL

Anyways, here are some pics of the Water Cobra. Impressive looking snake ....did I say I wouldn't let one bite me?

Here is an account of that famous herpetologist who was killed by the 'harmless' Boomslang. I think he should have listened to what the natives were telling him. Actually this reminds me of those silly B-flick Zombie movies where the old geezer who has lived in the town for 60 years tells the tourists not to enter the swamp, but the tourists always ignore the geezer and sooner or later their brains become zombie lunch! Anyways, here is the sad tale of Karl Schmidt:

The Boomslang is the most seriously venomous rear-fanged snake in the world. They have very long fangs and can open their mouths a full 180 degrees to bite. Famous herpetologist Karl P. Schmidt died 28 hours after a Boomslang bite. The day after the bite, he called in to say he felt well and would be in to work...2 hours before he literally dropped dead from the bite. Here is Green talking about some other episodes in which experienced herpetologists were lulled intocomplacency: ""Until the latter half of this century, herpetologists and physicians thought of colubrids as harmless snakes. Biologists had long known that some snakes had rear fangs, 'inferior' venom inlection mechanisms that might immobilize prey; although a few fatalities were on record, until 1957 the possibility that such snakes were deadly to humans seemed at most remote. The deaths of two prominent herpetologists from African colubrid bites changed that assessment, and recent events reveal that several other species of rear-fanged snakes have venoms that are potentially lethal to large vertebrates. "When Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo sent a small Boomslang (Dispholidus typus) to the nearby Field Museum of Natural History for identification, the three experienced herpetologists who examined it were not especially cautious. At age sixty-eight, Karl P. Schmidt was the most senior among them, as well as one of the world's most eminent and widely liked vertebrate biologists. Having studied African snakes as a young man, Schmidt immediately recognized the juvenile snake to be a Boomslang, despite some unusual scalation, and in the course of handling it he was promptly bitten. Although only one fang penetrated his thumb, Schmidt soon experienced nausea and some internal bleeding. He felt no great cause for concern and took careful notes on the symptoms. Schmidt felt better the next morning, but by midafternoon he was dead of a brain hemorrhage and respiratory collapse. As Clifford H. Pope, Schmidt's colleague and friend, concluded in an account of the incident, 'A total lack of experience with Boomslang venom is largely to blame for the tragic events of September 25 and 26.

Why people should never keep exotic venomous snakes from other countries. :

1) There might be no anti-venin within 5,000 miles that can be of any viable use to you.

2) You might be dead before any anti-venin arrives.

3) Many doctors ....actually most ....would have no idea what to do. For example in the following case:

Micah Stancil's experience suggests that even hospital care is not enough: "I was out cleaning cages one afternoon when I learned what was to be a very painful lesson. The first cage I cleaned was that of a large Sedge viper, around two and a half to three feet in length. I took a bag and two clamps out, and clamped the bag to the counter. I then took the snake out, placed her on the floor and pinned her the way I had done many times. I picked her up behind the head with my right hand and by the tail with my left hand. I carried her over to the bag, placed the tail in first, then held the bag open with my left hand as I dropped the snake in the bag. When I dropped the snake I made the mistake of holding onto the bag instead of letting go. She caught herself on the edge of the bag with her prehensile tail and in one fluid motion, shot straight up and out and bit me on my left thumb. I didn't feel any pain from the bite, but I knew it had happened.

"In disbelief, I looked down to see the two fang marks and a couple of drops of blood. I quickly hooked the viper and put her back in her cage. Knowing the seriousness of the situation, I quickly headed back inside my house to tell my wife what had happened and that I needed her to drive me to the hospital. She was in the middle of giving our little girl a bath and asked if it could wait until she was through. I kind of laughed and said, 'NO, we have to go now!' It was only about a 15 minute drive, but it seemed like forever. About half way to the hospital my hand began to feel as if it were on fire. Literally.

"When I arrived at the hospital, I told the nurse through my clenched teeth what had happened and she took me straight back. I had a packet of information already assembled with the scientific and common names, a picture of the snake, it's origin, and who to contact on how to treat the bite. The doctor just looked at the picture and said 'Pretty snake.'

"That's it! He didn't even take any information from the packet and therefore didn't know how to treat the bite. By the time he returned, they had me hooked up to an EKG and blood pressure monitor to keep an eye on my vital signs. The swelling was well past my wrist and the pain was excruciating.

"At this point the doctor decided to cut and suck the bite even though I told him the treatment was obsolete and besides that, it had been too long after the bite to do any good. He also decided to give me some antivenin at this time. I told him that there was no antivenin for Atheris yet and that the crotalidae antivenin wouldn't work. He just smiled and said, 'Yes it will. It works for all snake bites.'

"I guess I was too young to know that I could have and should have refused the antivenin at this point, so I ended up letting him treat me the way he wanted too. After all, he was a doctor right? But this brings up another point. Don't assume that all emergency room doctors know how to treat snake bites. Especially from exotic species. Unless your doctor has spent time with the Peace Corps in Africa, chances are he's never even heard of a Sedge viper.

"Well, by the time he finished cutting and suctioning the bite site, they had pumped 11 vials of Wyeth Crotalidae Polyvalent Antivenin into my body. And yet, the swelling was past my elbow and I was blacking out from the pain ! As they were taking me to my hospital room from the ER, I lost consciousness. After four hours I awoke to discover, much to my dismay, that the swelling was past my shoulder and into my chest. The pain fortunately had subsided due to a morphine drip, but this was really the least of my concerns at this point. Also, my hand was so swollen that my fingers were spaced out as far as they could go but they still touched each other. The hospital called in a hand surgeon but when he arrived he wasn't very eager to cut on me. He said that as long as the swelling didn't cut off the blood flow to my fingertips, he wasn't going to cut to relieve the pressure. The technical term for this is fasciotomy and in reality they are performed way too often with hemotoxic snake bites.

"I was talking with my hand surgeon when the real fun started. This is when I found out that the venom had inhibited my blood's ability to clot. The doctor's felt that my platelets had dropped too low and that I needed a blood transfusion. I thanked God when they tested my blood once more just before they took me out for the transfusion and discovered that my platelets had come up just enough to avoid one. Blood transfusions are often needed with severe hemotoxic envenomations.

"I wasn't in the clear though; I was still technically a hemophiliac. My blood was very thin and the doctors were worried that I could start bleeding internally. I couldn't even get out of bed because they were scared I might fall or bump into a table and bleed to death. And I suppose that it was actually a likely scenario. After being in the hospital for over a week, I finally talked them into letting me go home. By this time most of the swelling in my hand had gone down and all of the swelling was out of my arm. My hand did have a little stiffness and a few blood blister's, but it was much better. After two weeks and multiple trips to a hematologist, my blood returned to normal. Fortunately, the only lasting effect from the bite is a totally stiff joint on my left thumb, due to the tissue destruction of the ligament.

"If you do keep or are thinking about keeping venomous snakes, please understand that you can never be too careful. Many bites result in permanent injuries and are occasionally even fatal. A large percentage of these accidents can be avoided with proper handling techniques and equipment. But if the lasting physical effects of my bite and brush with death aren't enough to keep you from being careless, maybe it will interest you to know that my total hospital bill was $25,000. Though my insurance covered 80%, that left me with a $5,000 debt that I am still paying on. Heard enough? I thought so." (Stancil 2000)

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