Cobras have long been shrouded in mystique and fear. Although I don’t want to detract from the fact that death and crippling injuries do occur from cobra bites each year, the captive care of these and other venomous snakes can be undertaken with a minimum of risk. I wanted to end that sentence with the word “safely,” but after much thought I decided to drop the word for fear of giving the impression that it can be done without risk. I’m afraid that is not the case. Behavior, be it reptilian or mammalian, can be predicted about 99 percent of the time. It’s that one percent, however, that gets you killed.
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