"Lightning" Strikes the San Diego Zoo

Photo courtesy of SDZG.

This is Adhira, San Diego Zoo's two-year old rare monocled white cobra. This venomous snake was originally found and made the news in Thousand Oaks, California, although these snakes are normally found in South East Asia, in countries like China, Vietnam, India, and Cambodia. Therefore authorities believe that Adhira was probably an illegal escaped pet. These cobras are terrestrial and well-adapted to diverse habitats, typically living in rice paddies, grasslands, or forests where they prey mostly on amphibians, small mammals, fish, and other snakes. Monocled cobras are a species of "least concern" according to the IUCN due to their tolerance of anthropogenically altered habitats.

The San Diego Zoo rescued this snake in September 2014, because we are one of only two zoos in the country with the proper anti-venom for this species. Adhira is leucistic, which means she has reduced pigmentation, so she is white instead of brown like most of her species. The public voted on her name, which means "lightning" in Hindi. In February, I will be traveling to Sri Lanka and Thailand where this species is normally found; as much as I would like to see one in the wild, I really hope it's from a safe distance!