Whitesnake: Famous Southern California White Cobra Gets Name

[onedef92]

Famous Southern California White Cobra Gets Name: Adhira

SAN DIEGO — Jan 3, 2015, 5:14 PM ET

A white monocled cobra that briefly became a national celebrity after it roamed a Southern California neighborhood for several days in September now has a new name.

The San Diego Zoo tells the Los Angeles Times that the cobra will be called Adhira, which in Hindi means lightning.

The Times says Adhira came in first in an online poll to find a name for the venomous cobra that was captured in Thousand Oaks and, after a period of quarantine, joined the zoo's Reptile House.

Adhira received 4,612 votes, besting Sapheda (white), Krima (cream), Cini (Sugar), Moti (pearl) and Sundara (beautiful). Selected by the cobra's keepers, the names were meant to reflect the Southeast Asia region where cobras are native.

The Times says the snake went on exhibit Dec. 23.

[island14]

Cobra's always scared the shit outta me for some reason..

They have to be the most evil looking critter on the planet.

[Kerrmudgeon]

Who? ....Me?

[aj]

Oct. 67, Viet Nam. We got motar'd every few days and when it happened we headed for a bunker. About 2 am we got hit and just as we got to the bunker the first guy in stops and start saying it a 'Co...Co...Co..., it a big f-cking snake!' Looked inside and sure enough it was a Cobra. What the hell, there aren't any Cobras in our location. Had to be a VC that worked on the base during the day that put him in there.

I am fairly sure he was around 6 ft. long but he looked to be a lot longer than that. Being young and dumb one of the guys said he was going to go get grenades and we could kill him. As he turns to leave he made the comment, 'Don't let him out'. Duh! If that thing wants out he can go wherever he wants. So we stand outside and keep the flashlight shining in the snakes eyes and he just sways from side to side.

A few minutes later the guy comes back with 4 grenades. He says pull the pin and on the count of 3 throw them in and run. So that is what we did. Worked pretty well as there weren't many large pieces left. Of course this attracted the attention of the base CO. He comes over in a very angry mood until he looked in the bunker. At that point he says good job and he left.

That was the last time I went for a bunker. I decided it would be better to be hit with incoming than get bit by something and have to sit and wait to die. Definitely not high on my list of wanted pets.

[Bill]

You know when it was easiest to hear the cobra slithering around? In the still of the night.