A cobra that bit a veterinary student in Brazil, putting him in a coma, has turned into a celebrity by sparking an investigation into an alleged exotic animal trafficking ring.
The monocled cobra, which is native to Asia, bit 22-year-old Pedro Krambeck Lehmkuhl on July 7 in Brasilia, sending doctors on a frantic search for the right antivenom — so rare in Brazil that the lone doses had to be rushed from Sao Paulo.
Questions about how the snake ended up at the student’s apartment soon turned into a police investigation that found 16 other snakes at a property belonging to a friend of Lehmkuhl’s, as well as three sharks, seven more snakes, a Moray eel and a Tupinambis lizard at another property.
So far the probe has led to the firing of two officials at the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources over suspicions that they facilitated fraudulent import permits for a wildlife trafficking ring.
The student’s mother and stepfather, a police colonel, were also questioned and fined 8,500 reals (US$1,600) each on obstructing justice charges.
Lehmkuhl, who spent six days in the hospital, was released and fined 61,000 reals. He is still under investigation.
The cobra — which are known as naja in Portuguese — has become an Internet sensation after being found near a shopping center where it was allegedly abandoned by a friend of Lehmkuhl’s trying to get rid of evidence.
A Twitter account opened in the snake’s name, @najaoriginal, has nearly 50,000 followers.
“In less than a week, I have taken revenge on my oppressor, dismantled an animal trafficking ring, freed more than 16 friends, helped a shark and struck fear in the traffickers’ hearts,” it posted on July 11 — one of several tweets that have gone viral, mixing references to Brazilian pop music and telenovelas with humorous jabs at animal trafficking.
The snake is now living at the Brasilia Zoo, which showed off “Brazil’s most famous cobra” in an Instagram live video on Friday.
The zoo’s reptiles director, Carlos Nobrega, explained the 1.5m snake’s care and diet to rapt fans as it slithered about its enclosure.
Despite its ordeal, “everything seems to be OK” with the cobra, Nobrega said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia