A group of men in India stood around gazing at a motorcycle that had been commandeered by a deadly cobra, which took on a defensive posture with its hood fully expanded.
Clearly the cobra was not happy with one man standing so close while others kept a safe distance.
The man with the cellphone actually appeared to be within striking range of the reptile, whose venomous bite is capable of causing respiratory failure, cardiac arrest and even death.
India Today posted a one-minute video of the encounter seen in the district of Erode in Tamil Nadu.
A wildlife official was called to the scene. He removed the cobra from the motorcycle and relocated the reptile to a safer environment. The official noticed that the cobra had laid eggs near a bush, resulting in its aggressive defensive position.
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It didn’t stop the man with the cellphone from getting closeup video, however, making the cobra that much more defensive.
The Indian cobra, also known as the spectacled cobra and Asian cobra, is a member of the big four snakes of South Asia that are responsible for the majority of human deaths by snakebite in Asia.
Which is why it is so surprising that the man would get so close to it.