Snake Eaters! (cont.)
Here is more story-telling from our friend and colleague Anthony Childs:
“About seven years ago Masai in Amboseli took me to a cobra which they had killed in theprocess of eating a Puff adder.
What was amazing was the size of thePuff adder. It was just over six feet long, and already halfway down an eight and a half foot long Ashe’s Spitting cobra’s throat! The Masai had killed the cobra halfway through its
meal.
In this case the cobra in question had not killed the Puff adder. It had been killed the previous day and was decomposing.
All this shows is that Naja ashei likes Puff adders, even decomposing ones.
I remember James Ashe telling me a story of being called out for a snake in someone’s garden. When he got there, the snake in question had disappeared. On the lawn was a dead egg-eater (Dasypeltis medici lamuensis) that was badly decomposing.
James went in for a drink and a chat. When leaving, he intended to remove the egg-eater and approached it with some confidence, only to find a cobra swallowing it! James bagged the cobra and added it to his collection at Bio-Ken Snake Farm. Interestingly enough that type of cobra has now been elevated to a species now named after him - Naja ashei.”