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I have heard that cobras can only strike forward, so if you hold it a certain length from its head, and from youre face, it wont be able to bite you. Is this true?

Holding venomous snakes is not a recommended activity because it's very dangerous, even for professionals. Snakes need not strike to envenomate they can simply turn and bite you. Never under-estimate what a venomous snake can or can't do, your surprize may be a short lived one.

With that said; they generally fall forward during a strike but I've seen them make some impressive corrections on the way to the target. Yes, Ive seen people touch them on the top of the head while reared. I see it as an unacceptable risk to my good health to try it or other foolish stunts. Read paragraph #1, 2nd & 3rd sentence if you need further clarification.

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You can take the animal out of the jungle but you can never take the jungle out of the animal.

Al

Look man, I do not own any venemous snakes, and I dont plan to own any in the future. It was just a question.
It was a snake trick that I saw on tv. And the original question was: when you hold the snake below its head, actually on the snakes body, would it be able to strike you if you held it far enough from youre arm and face, with youre arm completely straight.
I just want to know if that is true.

>>Look man, I do not own any venemous snakes, and I dont plan to own any in the future. It was just a question.
>> It was a snake trick that I saw on tv. And the original question was: when you hold the snake below its head, actually on the snakes body, would it be able to strike you if you held it far enough from youre arm and face, with youre arm completely straight.
>> I just want to know if that is true.

It would not be able to strike your face if it does not have the free body length required to do so. However, there is nothing to stop it from turning round and biting the hand that is holding it.

When snake charmers do this trick, they rely on the fact that cobras *tend* to fixate onto one object (e.g., their face) and ignore other stimuli, such as being grasped and picked up. However, the snake is certainly physically able to bit the hand that is holding it. Snake charmers rarely die of old age (except those that work with adulterated animals).

Cheers,

WW
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WW Home

Thanks for all the replies.
This trick was acrually performed by a guy who was bitten by a death adder while performing one of his snake shows.

He would have been better off geting nailed by the cobra I think... Oh well
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Al

You can take the animal out of the jungle but you can never take the jungle out of the animal.

I did answer the question. Just in a slighly different manner than Wolfgang.

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You can take the animal out of the jungle but you can never take the jungle out of the animal.

Al

No offense, guy, but you asked a question which is likely to provoke a heated response from the hot herpers on this forum.
Newspapers regularly feature stories about some idiot who made a mistake with his , and who didn't get a chance to learn from said mistake. Often said idiot was just doing something he saw on TV, and/or trying to impress his friends with his 3133 snake handling skills.

Taking television as a guide to snake handling is like watching car chases on a crime drama, then deciding it's perfectly OK to drive 100 mph through the streets of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, many people don't realize that... and when you're dealing with highly venomous reptiles, your first mistake may well be your last one.

I'm not [bleep]ing at you -- as you said in your reply, you don't keep venomous snakes and hence had no way of knowing the guy was behaving like a bozo. I'm a lot more ticked off at TV shows which encourage people to try stupid and potentially fatal things by presenting idiots as "experts."

Interesting question. Amazing what TV shows. I have seen cobra's turn and strike. Also I have had cobra's strike from their back.
After handling cobra's for extraction for 28 years I have learned one thing expect the unexpected. Snakes do not read books and do not know how they are suppose to act.
WW has it right there are very few snake charmers that reach old age unless the animal is altered.

Jim Harrison

aah, thank God for TV shows, and the wonders that is has done for venomous keeping...
having kept elapids for quite a while, in particular naja niveas, I wouldn't want to test which way a cobra can or can't strike after watching one of the "professionals" on TV