This isn’t a case of a ‘snake in the grass’, but more of a ‘snake out of the glass.’
It has been over two weeks since a venomous snake left its Bronx Zoo exhibit. A Boiga dendrophila, more commonly known as a mangrove snake, escaped from its glass enclosure in zoo’s JungleWorld on Tuesday, August 6.
The zoo began notifying the guests entering JungleWorld the next morning and a sign was placed at the entrance of the exhibit.
The sign reads, “There is little chance of seeing or coming into contact with this snake due to its timid, secretive nature. But if you see it, please notify a staff person.”
According to the Bronx Zoo, although the mangrove snake is mildly venomous, it is not known to be dangerous to people.
A Bronx Zoo spokesperson stated that the snake is primarily active at night, and that the zoo has every reason to believe that the snake is somewhere in the JungleWorld exhibit and not in another part of the zoo.
Mangrove snakes primarily feed on rodents, small birds, fish, bats and frogs and will occasionally prey on other snakes.
In March 2011, an Egyptian cobra escaped from the Bronx Zoo but was found a week later. A twitter page, @BronxZoosCobra, was started as a campaign to find the missing snake and generated nearly 150,000 followers.
A few days after the mangrove snake went missing, @BronxZoosCobra’s twitter page read in response, “Hey, it happens.”
