Leucistic King Cobra

l4nsky

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Hola,

Dont know how many people follow NERD and Kevin McCurley, but he's purchased and successfully imported the blue eyed leucistic king cobra that was discovered this past summer and went viral on YT with over 8m views. She is really something and has quite an attitude. My guess is her highly defensive attitude is the reason she survived to adulthood. Anyways, I wish him best of luck with this project and if anyone can do it, it's the Evil Morph God himself. Head on over to the New England Reptile Distributors YT page if you want to see her in all her glory.

Thanks,
--Matt
 

l4nsky

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For those who just want to jump right to it.
 

basin79

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Not for me. Although she is obviously beautiful. Pales (pardon the pun) in comparison to the standard wild type. Although to be honest I always prefer the standard wild type in reptiles.

Massively surprised she lived to get to.that size.
 
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The Snark

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That's the most agitated Hannah I've ever seen. Utterly disgusting. Any worker up at the snake farm that had one under their care that agitated would be fired on the spot.
 

l4nsky

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That's the most agitated Hannah I've ever seen. Utterly disgusting. Any worker up at the snake farm that had one under their care that agitated would be fired on the spot.
Honestly, I think that is probably her default behaviour at this point. Since the time she was born, her color hasnt acted as a camouflage, keeping her safe from predators, but instead acted as a beacon for them. The struggles, trials, and near escapes she must have had over the 2+ years shes been alive has shaped her disposition this way (plus a 3 day shipping event and 2 day warmup didnt help). I believe she will calm down in time with Kevin as they are such smart snakes and he invests heavily in understanding the mindsets of his animals, but you have to start somewhere.
 

l4nsky

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Not for me. Although she is obviously beautiful. Pales (pardon the pun) in comparison to the standard wild type. Although to be honest I always prefer the standard wild type in reptiles.

Massively surprised she lived to get to.that size.
I'm not the biggest morph person either. There are a few Burmese, GTP, and retic morphs I wouldn't mind having, but it's generally not for me. That being said, I've never seen a more beautiful snake in my opinion. The pure white body plus the intelligence in those glacial blue eyes is just breath taking and I hope I can see her in person one day.
 

The Snark

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I believe she will calm down
Two year... will calm down. As in become docile, submission?

The struggles, trials, and near escapes she must have had over the 2+ years shes been alive has shaped her disposition this way
If I had to describe Hannah in a single word it would be autonomous.
Don't violate my/our space

Mom and dad here were stereo-typical of every Hannah at the farm and every Hannah I've come across. Escape, establish space between yourself and that other predator. If escape is impossible, there they stand, wary, watchful, vigilant. The door to their enclosure was open for about 15 minutes. The entire time they stood like statues as in the picture. A line was drawn at the doorway. DO NOT CROSS.

Nobody at that farm, or the other locations where Hannah are kept, handles Hannah. Nobody has the time or inclination to 'tame' them. They are in a forced situation, respect the lines they draw.

That video exemplifies how Hannah act when their space is violated and they know they cannot escape. Know they are about to be harassed.

2 years. A little over a year ago I spotted a Hannah about the same time it spotted me. Up came the front end, wary and watchful. I stopped and got off my bike about 30 feet away and sat on the ground. It took the snake all of 2 minutes to determine I was posing no threat. Front end came down and it ambled slowly off, back to going about it's business. At a guess, in the wild, they draw a line about 20 to 25 feet away. Encounters in our yard are almost always closer than that and they immediately put it in the wind.
I'll bet a years income you let that snake in the video have a free run for a half a year then encounter it as I did here it would do exactly the same. Nothing to do with coloration. All about autonomy and environment. Just like an extremely smart dog that knows the boundaries of it's territory, but Hannah's territory is a perimeter around it wherever it goes. It's eyesight and internal radar as keen or better than the senses of a watchdog.
 
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l4nsky

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Two year... will calm down. As in become docile, submission?
Not even in the loosest sense of the word, this is a WC king cobra after all. I specifically said calm down and not become tame, docile, or submissive because these are smart, thinking, high energy snakes, not domestic dogs. I believe through repetitive, positive interactions she will calm down to the point of less open mouth displays/strikes and be more inquisitive and interested in her surroundings instead of excessively threatened by them. She's never going to be a corn snake or a ball python.
 
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The Snark

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She's never going to be a corn snake or a ball python.
I'll partly agree. There's a long list of deceased 'snake charmers' that had decades of working with their particular favorite Hannah. Early last year such a person who had handled Hannahs for over 50 years and had worked with that one particular animal for over five took a fatal bite.
Hannah simply has a very unique personal agenda. I very much doubt one could build a full affinity as people do with wolves or the great cats.

My personal perspective is there are certain animals that absolutely must be allowed to always live in situ. Hannah is the poster child.
 
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