Rescued cobra vomits another cobra in Tamil Nadu – Times of India

CUDDALORE: A five-foot long cobra, which entered the house of a farm worker in Cuddalore district, spat out its prey, a three-foot long cobra much to the surprise of the inmates of the house and their neighbours when snake catcher and rescuer V Selvam alias Chellaa rescued the reptile on Tuesday night.
Chellaa said the young cobra, which was chased by the adult cobra, might have entered the worker’s house. The bigger one preyed on the young cobra, before the reptile was rescued by him.
Kavitha, a farm worker, alerted the snake catcher on Tuesday night after spotting the two snakes slithering one after the other into a portion of her house where she had dumped unused things. Kavitha’s children, assisting Chellaa, found its scales through the crack in a wall.
As hissing sounds emanated from the crack, Chellaa broke open the crack using a sickle and found the five feet long cobra. His efforts to trace the second snake turned futile. When he set the cobra free, it started spitting the other snake. The prey was dead by then. He packed the adult cobra into a jar for releasing it in a nearby forest.
“Generally, king cobras hunt and eat other snakes including king cobras, provided the prey are smaller than them. King cobras feed only on snakes. Common cobras prey on a variety of snakes including common cobras.
It is quite unusual, but not unheard of,” said S R Ganesh, herpetologist at Chennai snake park. A six-foot-long cobra, rescued from a drain in Sipcot industrial estate in Cuddalore district, spit out a four-foot rat snake in August last year.