December 18, 2015
A dangerous and unusual passenger was found stowed away on a cargo ship that arrived at a New Jersey port from China – an Indian cobra.
The snake was found onboard a ship at Port Elizabeth in New Jersey after traveling from Singapore, the Associated Press reported. The snake was discovered by the ship's crew en route to New Jersey last week, and after the ship docked, it was rescued by herpetologists from the Bronx Zoo on Monday.
It took about 30 minutes for the snake experts to find the cobra and capture it. The snake is estimated to be about a year old, female and 18 inches long. It was dehydrated from its trip, but is improving, and it likely will become a permanent resident at the Bonx Zoo, where she was named Sana, after the ship where she was found.
The Indian cobra – native to Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka – is considered one of the deadliest snakes in Asia. They grow as long as six feet and often hunt for food around homes in rural areas, which regularly brings them into contact with humans.
A bite from an Indian cobra causes respiratory failure and can kill a person in as little as 15 minutes, but usually takes several hours. Anecdotally, several thousand people die every year from these snake, but no exact statistics are available.
Read more about the snake found on the cargo ship here.
