Came across this little guy during today’s hike in Neishuangxi.
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Family had a close noon time encounter on a grassy Riverside area in Taitung with a huge black snake with white markings.
Just my luck that by the time I turned around it had skiddaddled into the water at a very fast pace.
Thought it was a banded krait but it turned out to be a cobra when my kids checked the pics and saw the markings on the back of the head.
They said it was huge 
. (Pic for reference )
On the same say we were buzzed by two hornets…Never encountered any of these animals or insects before ,that place is wild!
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Yep, lots of cobras down in the south! Luckily they generally arent that agressive and do give fair warning.
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Cobras while not aggressive do like to raise themselves up and hush at you in classic cobra fashion if they feel threatened. Lovely creatures and surprisingly common, I’ve seen them in YMS.
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The warning is quite respectful, i agree. After they feel cornered and run out of any options they see possible to run away, they do give a show to let everything know they are here. both visually and audibly. Much like our species behaves in many resepcts.
After that, bites are either freak accidents (step on one in thick bush type of thing) or basically deserved 
Either way, there is very little room to justify they were at fault in almost all painful encounters.
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Social media is the new darwinism…peoples stupidity for attention is really quite “precious” as well haha. Seems nature is starting to cull…
Just so you know, baby cobras are just as venomous as adult ones, sometimes even more so. They may look cute but don’t let that fool you! I’m sure the guy handling it is a trained expert but you are literally playing with fire when doing so.
Pretty sure we’ll still be the deadliest animal for a long time to come…
Girl.
Agreed. but that doesnt make the second any less dangerous! Darwinism…
Thats a worm 
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I think he’s got you there.
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Dang, is that code for something unfriendly to a family forum?
Its late, im about to tap out, but in case there was any confusion that is an annelid haha. A pretty decently sized one as well.
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Giant earthworms.
And you should see the ones they have in Gippsland Australia…
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woman bitten by a brown spotted pit viper in Keelung City
The snake attacked the 35-year-old woman, surnamed Chen (陳), in a yard at around 8 p.m., when she crossed its path in the dark
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And Thailand King Cobras illegally imported and released in Taichung. A hiker just got bitten a couple days ago.
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How did it get here? On a plane?
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Invasive species worry the absolute shit out of me. I have been yelling (seemingly to myself) aboutthis issue. Certain species of snakes and scorpions in particular. An introduced frog or lizard is one thing. A naturalized fat tail scorpion which we could buy for 150nt a decade ago could easily naturalize. The biggest issue, especially if certain snakes get a strong hold, is the first people bitten are at high risk due to no anti venom here.
There are a LOT of both legal and illegal animal importers here, and i have yet to meet you single one that is anywhere close to responsible. Then they sell them to anyone, so who knows whats crawling around.
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problem is Buddhism consider releasing animals to the wild “good karma”. It should not, releasing animals would not only condemn them to a horrible death (because they depend on humans) but also if the animal does become successful somehow they become invasive species.
For example, cats and dogs do become invasive species and in Australia they hunt and kill cats because they literally wiped out about 30 something species of birds. Pigs are another example. Releasing pigs into the wild means they start exploding in population, and pigs are smart enough to get through man made structures (they can chew through anything that isn’t concrete even without the tusks) and they are also dangerous to humans. This is why in Texas for example there are absolutely no restrictions whatsoever on killing hogs, you can shoot them from vehicles, aircraft, with a headlight (illegal if hunting deer), explosives, whatever. In fact in Texas people will pay you to kill them.
You got buddhists buying live fish at the market and releasing them… this can become invasive species too.