AAAS: "Snakes on a train? Deadly reptiles may be hopping railcars in India." Dikansh Parmar, source of most of this article, is based at the University of Bonn + also at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change.The king cobra pictured can grow to 3 m [just shy of 10 ft] in length, is the only snake that builds a nest, + their prey is predominantly smaller snakes. However, "they will strike, and very quickly, if they feel threatened—and in a place like a train, that can happen easily." Flooding is increasing in India, + perhaps they are seeking dry shelter. They are agile climbers + on trains they may find rodents, lizards or other snakes such as the rat snake, their favorite prey. "More and more reports of snakes on trains have hit the headlines in India in recent years, although the uptick in media attention may be due to the rise of cellphone cameras." Now, "inadvertent hitchhiking appears to be transporting these deadly snakes into places they don’t normally occur, the team reports this week in Biotropica."
They are normally found in forest + along rivers with dense vegetation, thus one way to prevent accidental movement of king cobras would be to restrict trains from stopping in prime forest habitat. Another would be to emphasize the importance of not leaving food on passenger trains, which can attract rodents. "The most effective intervention would be halting the degradation of forests, Parmar adds, so snakes are less motivated to roam railway tracks looking for food."
As background from Wikipedia, most snakebites are caused by non-venomous snakes. Of the roughly 3,700 known species of snake found worldwide, only 15% are considered dangerous to humans. Estimates run from 1.2 to 5.5 million snakebites per yr, with 421,000 envenomings, resulting in perhaps 20,000 deaths or even considerably higher.
When our children were young, we kept a Rosy Boa in a terrarium, feeding it of course on pinks. I like reptiles, I really do, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
