When a venomous snake gets loose, it’s all hands on deck to try to find the missing reptile. A Swedish zoo had to close its doors to the public while officials searched the area for a highly venomous king cobra that escaped from its enclosure.
The Skansen Zoo in Stockholm said the attraction was evacuated when zookeepers discovered the snake had gone missing from its terrarium through a light fixture. Aptly nicknamed Houdini, the snake pulled off an escape move that would make the magician proud.
Jonas Wahlstrom, the owner of the zoo, said the search for the cobra was ongoing as of October 24, 2022. Officials believe the snake is hiding somewhere in a back room, far from the public areas of the zoo.
“It’s not in the visitor area but behind the scenes,” Wahlstrom said. “It’s cooler there and it’s lying there and resting.”
The current outside temperature in Stockholm is too cold for the snake to survive for very long outside the building, making it obvious that the snake is inside somewhere.
Zookeepers reported that Houdini had only been in the terrarium a day, after being moved from another area of the zoo. Keepers had hoped the snake would mate with another cobra in the exhibit but instead escaped the first chance it got.
Source: https://www.thelocal.se/20221024/highly-venomous-king-cobra-still-at-large-in-stockholm/