The Innes cobra is an animal that has captured my interest for many years. a medium-sized black poisonous snake of arid North Africa and the Middle East. The scientific name of the desert cobra is Walterinnesia aegyptia. A rare snake, and the only representative of its genus. Not commonly found in captive collections and increasingly rare in the wild. The Innes cobra does not hood when threatened to defend its self. it maintains a low to the ground stance and cocks its head and neck to the side in defense. It has a very quick strike and while it is not usually an aggressive animal, its small body and very fast movements make it very difficult to handle. The Innes cobra has a toxic venom and is a known man killer, while bites in captivity can be treated with success thanks to modern day antivenin research, should you one day be in the Sini and take a bite, you can kiss more than the snake good bye. When it comes to feeding, this snake is not very picky in the wild. An opportunistic feeder It is known to eat the baby Gerbils that occupy the desert as well as other snakes such as cerastes and echis and lizards like the very common uromastyx that also occupies the Sini. Having such a diverse diet based mainly around other reptiles makes this animal difficult to acclimate to rodents in captivity, I had a friend who fed his frozen thawed Mali uromastyx for a period of time and the animal did very well on them. I spoke with a gentleman who was cleaning import snakes one time and made the mistake of pitting the Innes in a bin with cerastes at his warehouse, needless to say come morning all he had was one fat Walternesia. So why is this animal so rare in captive collections? well this can be attributed to many things. Over collecting for one. I remember a few years back when the Innes could be found in random import warehouses for $20 considered a trash snake because of its poor feeding habits. I was recently with some gentleman who collect from the Sini for middle east exporters, they told me that the decline of the Innes has been very noticeable over the past few years, I personally spent 3 days in the Sini collecting and came across only one Innes myself. I am a wildlife importer in the US and plan to continue study on this snake, luckily my business allows me to travel overseas often and I have spent and will spend more time in this snakes natural habitat. If anyone has experience or more information to share please do. I hope to one day know enough to captive produce this animal and show others this rare glossy black beauty.


I'm sorry, this Article is unavailable or waiting for administration approval and therefore no comments are allowed.