Bronx Zoo cobra found in its reptile house

NEW YORK — A highly venomous Egyptian cobra that went missing at the Bronx Zoo was found Thursday after nearly a week on the lam in the reptile house, zoo officials said.

The approximately 24-inch snake was found coiled in a dark corner of the reptile house, about 200 feet from where it had escaped from a holding cage outside the exhibit into a space described by officials as a labyrinth of pipes and equipment.

"As you can imagine, we are delighted to report that the snake has been found alive and well," the zoo's director, Jim Breheny, said during a news conference as he stood in front of a huge picture of the snake projected on a screen.

The reptile house, a foreboding building with vines crawling up its sides and stone heads of alligators and frogs jutting from the sides of its roof, had closed last Friday after the snake disappeared and zoo workers couldn't find it.

The snake quickly became the stuff of urban legend. Someone even started pretending to be the cobra on Twitter and sent fake updates to legions of followers about its supposed escapades on the streets of New York City.

But zoo officials said the snake never left the reptile house and had been crawling around in an off-exhibit area.

Breheny said the snake was "resting comfortably and secure" and was being evaluated to make sure it was in good condition. He said it had been placed in the same area as the other venomous snakes. The zoo plans to exhibit the snake once it has been evaluated.

He said the zoo would probably hold a naming contest for the cobra, believed to be female, which it obtained in February.

The snake was captured at about 9 a.m. Thursday. Wood shavings that had been used as bedding for rats and mice were put out to lure the 3-ounce adolescent snake out of hiding, said Breheny, who explained that "snakes hunt by olfactory means."

"It was merely the scent of the rodents that we hoped would bring her out," he said.