Saturday, April 2, 2011

Ssssearch is over: Missing Bronx Zoo cobra found

Snake that has become a Twitter phenom is in good condition, resting after adventure .

The venomous Egyptian cobra that vanished from her quarters at the Bronx Zoo last week was found on Thursday, safe, sound and all coiled up in a dark corner of the zoo’s reptile house. 

Image: Recovered Egyptian cobra (© Julie Wilson Maher/WCS) 

The adolescent female snake is in good condition after her weeklong foray into cageless freedom.
“We’re really happy to announce that cobra missing for seven days has been found,” Jim Breheny, director of the Bronx Zoo, said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. “She’s alive and well ... resting comfortably and secure.”

Breheny said the key strategy in recovering the snake was patience.
“We did fairly extensive sweeping searches throughout the [reptile house] and in the non-public back area,” he said, explaining that the non-public areas of the zoo’s buildings are a labyrinth of pipes and equipment for filtration system, furnaces and the like. For days now, zoo staff members armed with tongs have been combing the back of the reptile house in an effort to find the reclusive snake.
They finally spotted her in a secluded, dark corner at about 9 a.m. Thursday.
Breheny said zoo staff worked hard to create the right environment to make the snake as comfortable — and as findable — as possible: dim lights, low sounds, and an abundance of wood shavings that carried the scent of mice and rats.

News Source: MSN

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