Now, THESE are alive, and deadly!

[cobraman]

Notice that THESE are not in someone's hand? Hmmm, now what does that say for the one that was being handled??? Any forensic detectives out there?

[cobraman]

how cute

[Tim and Julie B]

I have only ever seen one and I will never forget it! It was so magestic I was in awe! I would like to see one again someday.

[cobraman]

Pet me, Ray

[Vanan]

They look very intelligent. People have said that they are pretty smart too. I think it was BW who was mentioning one which figured out how to open it's cage.

[ballpython5000]

pet it

[Tim and Julie B]

UHMMMM.................I think I'll pass on that one. I'd rather french kiss a croc monitor. Have you seen those things!

[Feed'em All]

It hasn't eliptical pupils, those aren't venomous....
HAHAHA!!!!!!!
Martin.

[kovu]

Hahah you should bring it to a show ( the frozen one of course ) and give ppl heart attacks

French kiss.. hmm havnt heard of that for a while. Well here in Good ol' America itd be a freedom kiss :p

[Kyle Barker]

kovu, LMOA!!!

[nicola_boulton]

i watching a program on black mambas 2day. And apparently they can get up to 4m, and rear up and actually strike a man in the face!!!! THE HORROR!!!! but i think they are all rumors. Thanks 4 the cool pics.

[Feed'em All]

I saw the same show!!! creepy as it can be!!!
But actually what scared me the most was the guy with almost no fingers due to gabbys and puffs bites...
Martin

[BWSmith]

Very nice shots, Ray. Mambas are some snakes that I really do not like working with. And i have not even worked with a poly, just jameson's, eastern greens, and western greens. I have only been on "point" for poly work. One of the only 2 snakes I attribute intelligence to. Nice to have a snake that doesn't even have to open it's mouth to deliver a fatal bite!!

[Matt]

One of the only 2 snakes I attribute intelligence to

ok, i gotta ask....whats the other?

[cobraman]

My guess is the King Cobra, Right, Brian???

[BWSmith]

Yup. I have seen O hannahs hold a grudge.

i was helping a friend medicate and remove eyecaps from a 10 foot King. This of course was done through tubing. Anyone who has ever tried to Tube a cobra knows that this can be adaunting task. particularly with one of this size. We did find a nice method. By grabbing the King about a foot behind the hood with Gentle Giant Tongs, he went into escape mode and dropped the hood and a tube could be put over his head. But it took about 30 minutes of trial and error to find out this little trick. naturally i was the one with the tongs. Once acclimated, he went on display at the serpentarium. many days for up to a YEAR after that, there could be 20 kids pounding on the glass and he would just lay there complaicent. As soon as he got a glimpse of me, he would rear up and hit the glass repeatedly. I was the only one he did this with. Very intimidating and i rarely worked with him directly again. But it did come in handy during cage cleaning time. I could stand by the glass and he was so focused on me that he ignored his water dish being removed (with tongs) and so forth.

I will also never forget the most vicious and intelligent snake i have ever had the "pleasure" of working with. She was a 9' female. She came from Mardi Snipes at Coastal Reptiles. Anyone who knows Mardi knows the he is an amazing handler with great instincts and one of the best dealers and all around. I have never seen him anything but calm and collected when working with snakes. This King chased HIM out of the room 3 times. Finally he had to throw a bag over her head from accross the room and then go in with a bag stick. Needless to say, she promptly arrived at my firend's serpentarium. We 2 of the 3 bags off of her (triple bagged!!!) and placed the last one in the cage. Cut the zip tie and attached a string so that we could unbag her withthe cage closed. She stayed hooded for over 8 hours straight!! She did not act like a cobra. When she struck, she would do a typical cobra strike/fall. But as soon as she hit the ground, she chased you wide open mouth along the floor! When tonged in Gentle Giants, she bit the tongs and anything else she could reach. She stopped, looked at where the tongs had her, followed them up with her eyes and saw my friend on the other end. Immediately she tried to strike him but could not. After a few seconds of "conteplation" she began VIPER STRIKING!!! She S-ed up and lunged. Each lunge got her another half inch closer to him! Let's just say that she had a nice pair of Gentle Giants as a cage decoration for a while. The time came that she got sold and i helped him prepare her for shipping. We had a very clever maneuver for bagging her which i wont go into detail about. After several dry runs (a rarety), we started the maneuver. I will never forget the feeling when I went to tie the bag and her tail flew out of the bag and slapped me on the arm! (she was still restrained with tongs even after she was int he bag). To remove the tongs, I had to lay a hook across mouth of the bag so he could tie it. i have never seen one snake put so much venom into a bag, nor had one make me Hop-Scotch more trying to keep the hook laid! Truly a one of a kind snake in my eyes and a memory that i will never forget.

So yes, given just those two examples, i would have to say King Cobra is an intelligent creature. ;)

[ranmasatome]

Wow!! amazing pics man...its funny how a black mamba can instill so much fear when you're not even touching it...they are definately one of the most majestic creatures in my book. the adults are just amzingly awesome...i haven't seen one in the wild yet..maybe some day i should...heh..heh..
king cobras are also awesome snakes...i used to go to catch fishes in the huge drains and would see one every now and then...they look so majestic...
funny how venomous sankes seems to be more intelligent....hmmmm....
i think its just the mambas eyes that so big and seems to suggest that its thinking all the time...heh..heh..:)

[ranmasatome]

hahaha just read the abv. post...wow seems like some adventure huh...must have had adrenalin running all over ur head...
i heard from my grandma and grandpa that cobras are really intelligent animals that recognize faces...of course i say this with some superstition behind it becos my grandma came from malaysia and has seen these guys like super often. my grandad recalls trying to kill one and failed and only maiming it...surprisingly it came back for him that very night...when he was abt. to go to bed..he found the exact same guy trying to get under his floor matress!!! that freaks me out!! but he has always told me that if attacked by one..walk away..if chased and you have no choice but to kill it...make sure you kill it...like dead kinda dead...ironically i've bee bitten by a spitting cobra when outfiled training...good thing it was dry...scared the **** out of me..i could have pissed outa my ***!!

[shaggybill]

Earlier someone mentioned a snake delivering a fatal bite and not even opening its mouth. Could someone explain how that happens?

[Mike177]

Now lets see you free handle that one lol Jk in fact please dont!

[BWSmith]

The mamba has very large fangs for an elapid and often all they have to do is slap you with the side of thier face to scratch you with a fang.

[snakemann87]

since the topic was broght up, ihave also heard that king cobras are intelligent too. As mark oshea said that a cobra kept his eys on him alot more, maybe showing that the cobras recognizes him??