Clever cobra

A big animal is chasing you and wants to eat you ... What do you do? Watch this clip to see how a cobra protects itself.

Instructions

Do the preparation task first. Then, watch the video and then do the exercises. Remember you can read the transcript at any time.

Transcript

Steve: This is a fiery snake. You see he’s rearing up towards me. Ooh! And just flicked venom all down my arm. Now, look at that. Ooh! Perfect! He actually flicked venom straight at me.

Actually, a little bit of it went into my mouth. You can taste it. It has a sort of rusty kind of taste to it. The venom can’t do me any harm unless it gets into my bloodstream. That actually did go right into my mouth.

What I’m trying to do is restrain the head so to actually give an impression of what would happen if an animal was to, was to attack it, what it would do. And he just spat straight at the camera. I think there are a few flecks of venom just on the outside of the lens, lens hood here.

This gentle pressure doesn’t hurt the snake but it will help me show you how cunning it can be.

With the head restrained, and the snake really feeling like it has nowhere to go, the next thing that the rinkhals does is play dead. Look at that. So this is the rinkhals' last line of defence.

It’s been fast, it’s been quick, it’s been aggressive, it’s spat venom at me, and now it’s just playing dead. No motion whatsoever.

And any animal that won’t take dead prey, it’s not going to be interested, it’s going to leave it alone. Anything that will, and gets in too close, is going to get a nasty surprise and probably a bite. Now that’s what I call a clever snake.