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I know this is an odd request, but bare with me...embedded into this post is a photo of a bottle of Vietnamese "cobra wine". It is, in fact, rice wine with 2 small beans in the bottle, along with a segment of a cobra including some of the body as well as the head. I have done my best to photograph the bottle, but between glares and distortions from the glass it was not an easy task! Any ideas as to the species I would be very interested to know! A sad end for such a beautiful snake, no doubt.

-Steve Clark

>>I know this is an odd request, but bare with me...embedded into this post is a photo of a bottle of Vietnamese "cobra wine". It is, in fact, rice wine with 2 small beans in the bottle, along with a segment of a cobra including some of the body as well as the head. I have done my best to photograph the bottle, but between glares and distortions from the glass it was not an easy task! Any ideas as to the species I would be very interested to know! A sad end for such a beautiful snake, no doubt.

The "cobra" is a Xenochrophis flavipunctatus, also known as chequered keelback, a harmless natricine snake from SE Asia. These often get used as subsitute cobras for this purpose (with necks artificially flattened), especially as cobras have been largely hunted out in many parts of SE Asia.

Cheers,

Wolfgang
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