Just days before the New Year rolled in, Stairway kids and staff witnessed an amazing natural phenomenon in Stairway–a Philippine cobra locked in a stranglehold by a python. The Philippine cobra is the world’s deadliest snake. They are found on Luzon, Mindoro, Catanduanes and Masbate islands. Its average length is 1,70 m. Populations from Mindoro Island are known to be up to 2 Meter in length (Lutz, M., 2006). Its color is light to medium brown while the young cobra’s color is a darker brown.
The venom is a neurotoxin which affects cardiac and respiratory function and can cause neurotoxicity and respiratory paralysis and death in thirty minutes. The bite causes only minimal tissue damage. The Philippine cobra is capable of spitting their venom up to three meters.Deadly snakes, forced out of their nests by flood waters, have become a serious threat in some areas in the Philippines.
The Philippine Cobra is called “ulupong” in Tagalog.
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