Despite what you may have read on Twitter, the escaped Bronx Zoo cobra never left her house.
While a fake Twitter account posted updates of the cobra's whereabouts, zoo staff had a good idea where the cobra really was hiding. After a seven-day search in the zoo's Reptile House, the missing Egyptian cobra was found inside the building, officials from the Bronx Zoo announced today (March 31) at a news conference.
The deadly snake did not appear at the conference to explain herself. Officials at the press conference showed a photograph of the adolescent snake resting in a secure enclosure.
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The cobra was found this morning in a nonpublic, off-exhibit area of the zoo's Reptile House. After going rogue for a week, the snake will be placed under observation and evaluated. When zoo officials are certain that the snake is in good condition, the Reptile House will reopen with the cobra on exhibit.
"As you can imagine, we are delighted to report that the snake has been found alive and well," said Jim Breheny, director of the Bronx Zoo. "The key strategy here was patience."
Zoo staff suspected the cobra had not escaped the building. So after the building was secured last Friday, they conducted sweeping searches around the clock on a daily basis, looking for any signs of the snake's movement.
The difficulty was that the small snake, which is months old and weighs about 3 ounces (85 grams), was hiding within the holding areas of the Reptile House — an extremely complex environment containing pumps, motors and other mechanical systems.
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