Mysterious Venomous Snakes Found in LR Neighborhood

Little Rock, AR - A frightening discovery as four venomous snakes abandoned in a Little Rock neighborhood. but thankfully residents are now out of harms way.

It started when a driver stopped to look inside a wooden box at Sixth and Byrd streets. As he peered in, a cobra lifted its head- preparing to strike. Luckily, the reptiles are now in the hands of the Little Rock Zoo.

Handlers say the snakes are worth a thousand dollars- and while they are now contained--the question remains, where did they come from?

(Randal Berry, Little Rock Zoo) "Sure enough, there they were, I thought holy cow! We've got some pretty serious animals."

Reptile keeper Randal Berry opened up this box, labeled "live venomous reptiles" to find a very aggressive cobra, a 14 inch twig snake, a 6 foot long green mamba, and a 4 foot long black mamba.

(Berry) "Very venomous- especially the green and the black ones- could be a very serious bite."

Randal says these snakes are not in their usual territory, they're at home in Africa.

There, black mambas are classified as the largest poisonous snake- cruising up to 7 miles per hour. Green mambas live in trees and can swallow prey up to 4 times its size, and the bite of a twig snake is especially deadly-- because there is no known antidote.

Meanwhile, the cobra is known for not shying away when around humans. Randal says the cobra was more animated than the others--and he observes that whoever owned the snakes, fed them well.

Still many are scratching their heads trying to figure out how these out of country snakes made their way into Arkansas.

(Berry)"I'm just assuming that someone shipped them from reptile dealers."

Randal says it's up to their director, but they will most likely transfer the snakes to another zoo.


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hots abandoned on LR


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Bud

[ Hide Replies ]

• PRESS-- Mysterious Venomous Snakes Found in LR Neighborhood - budman 1st, Mon May 17 15:16:17 2004
• venomous dealers out of control? - budman 1st, Mon May 17 15:20:03 2004
• sounds like...... - mrdoe, Tue May 18 05:39:05 2004
• highly unlikely - budman 1st, Tue May 18 07:02:26 2004
• if this was a shippment... - djs27, Tue May 18 11:04:28 2004
• RE: if this was a shippment... - lanceheads, Tue May 18 18:33:48 2004
• RE: if this was a shippment... - MsTT, Tue May 18 19:01:14 2004
• RE: if this was a shippment... - lanceheads, Tue May 18 20:00:06 2004