Phuket Cobras Running Out Of Room, Into Houses

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Phuket cobras running out of room, into houses

HOODED DANGER: The female cobra rises to strike.

Sayon Thommapun of Chalong Rescue with his assistant – and the snake.

PHUKET: -- A family in Phuket last night had their regular laid-back Sunday evening at home rudely interrupted by a cobra trying to enter their house.

“We had dinner with family and friends in the garden near the pool. After dinner, my wife, Nongyao, cleared the table and on her way back to the kitchen she encountered a snake,” explained Lothar Schudt, who has lived in Rawai off Saiyuan Road, for 16 years.

“I was already in the pool enjoying the lovely evening when my wife started screaming: ‘Snake! Snake!’,” he said.

Despite his many years in Thailand, Mr Schudt said he initially had trouble understanding what his wife was screaming. “I couldn’t tell if she was yelling ‘Rat!’ [noo] or ‘Snake!’ [ngoo], which are very similar in pronunciation,” he explained.

After failing to get through to several numbers published as snake removal services, he called the Kusoldharm Foundation, who promised to send someone immediately.

“Fifteen minutes later, Sayon Thommapun of Chalong Rescue and his assistant were at my house, where I had trapped the snake in a confined area.

“It took them only about five minutes to catch the snake, which turned out to be a female cobra,” said Mr Schudt.

“They promised to release the cobra in the hills,” he added.

Although happy the snake was trapped and would be released back into the wild, Mr Schudt expressed his concern over the extent of encroachment into snakes’ natural habitat on Phuket.

“Like many other wild animals in Phuket, snakes have lost most of their habitat due to construction and over-development. They have nowhere to go.

“This was the first time in all these years that we have had a cobra of this size on our property. We keep our house clean and there are no rodents, which cobras normally feed on, near our house – but this animal had nowhere to go.

“In the end, all of us were very happy that Khun Sayon and his assistant did a very good job to secure the snake and release it in a proper area. Thank you for the quick response Khun Sayon,” he said.

Chalong emergency snake response can be reached at 076-283-3467.

-- Phuket Gazette 2011-02-28

[Jimi007]

I've had cobras at my house in Rawai for the past 5 years I've been in this house. I came home today and my Thai family shouted for me to stop and talk to them. They said they saw my dog after a big cobra and thought it bit her. I rushed to my house to find her asleep under my car. I called her to examine her and she was fine. I have seen her kill quite a few cobras, but I try to distract her and let the snake go on it's way. I see several other species of snakes around too. The Red Neck Keelback, which is also quite poisonous being one, as well as other non poisonous species... But I agree that unchecked development is having a negative impact of many aspects of life for many creatures on Phuket....

[KarenBravo]

It's not only the destruction of habitat that is killing the local wildlife.

Dogs and in particular cats are slaughtering native skinks, Garden Post lizards, harmless Golden Tree snakes and many varieties of song-birds.

Each year in my garden, I see less and less of the fauna that should be there.

[steelepulse]

I've lost two hunting dogs to poisonous snakes. On 3 sides of my house is open land with grass, jungle and weeds. I've since switched to dogs that don't have such a strong prey drive, so now when they see a snake, they take a non curious view of them and let them slither off. Recently there's been a 2 metre rat snake about, but no sign of cobras for 3 months.