Snake | February 17, 2022 1:01 PM | Alisa

Cobra vs Puff Adder – Snakebite

Cape Cobra biting a Puff adder, The video was taken by me while bow hunting in the Murraysburg area, Karoo, South Africa, My cousin (Thys Pienaar) and I were busy walking in a dry river bed when we ran into this once-in-a-lifetime sight, we stayed for about five minutes after the Cape Cobra bit the Puff adder.

I confronted the Cape Cobra, but it was too quick in the brush. The Puff adder was very slow and it seemed like it was a bit before as well. Based on what I see here, it appears the adder had already been bitten at least once. The lack of defensive posture and the labored muscular contractions indicates a previous envenomation.

Are cape cobras only found in a specific area? I found a nine-foot cobra in Hong Kong that did not have the striped markings of a king cobra, and it seemed too long to be a Chinese cobra, but it did seem to have a very similar coloration to this snake.