Mar 11, 2010

A Man with a Snake in His Mouth

For all I know, this man might be a very dutiful snake owner. Maybe he runs a rescue operation, does captive breeding for endangered species, and is a diligent defender of snakes the world over. Or, maybe the snake tried to strike at him, and the man is so fast that he caught the strike with his mouth, ninja-style.


But when I look at this photo, the darker part of me hopes that the snake has latched on to the man's tongue and intends to swallow him whole, tongue first. But it isn't so much the thoughts that occur to us that condemn us, but the thoughts that we entertain. So, I'll stick with the former scenario. He's a good man with a snake in his mouth.

BTW, what kind of snake is this?

UPDATE: This looks to be a king cobra, though it's likely that it has been defanged. Score one for my dark side.


9 comments:

Laura said...

i BELIEVE it's a cobra of some sort, and it's probably got its mouth sewn shut.

Raging Wombat said...

If so, then you just gave my dark side a pat on the back.

Bigarade said...

OH MY GODDDD :O
WHYY DO ITTT!!

i wonder if he could feel the snakes tongue!

Unknown said...

King cobras are often banded, but it's really hard to tell without a better view of the snake's head.

fainfenix makes a great point. It's also entirely possible its fangs have been removed.

Anonymous said...

http://worldphotocollections.blogspot.com/2009/07/10-most-poisonous-animals-in.html

Looks like a strongly banded King Cobra.

Laura said...

Malkavian - you may be right. in either yours or my situations, i feel sorry for the snake. i hate animal abuse for the sake of entertainment. :(

Unknown said...

Yar. I'm enthralled with venomous snakes, but if you can't handle the heat, find something else to do, don't alter the critter for convenience.

Laura said...

agreed, particularly when one considers the amount of pain that animal had to endure for that kind of modification. it's not like they just cut the fangs out - they actually had to cut out part of the jawbone to defang it.

sad. :(

Unknown said...

One other thing occurred...Tiger snake...maybe? They have a pretty narrow range though, so it depends on where the photo was taken.