The venomous white cobra captured in Thousand Oaks arrived Friday at the San Diego Zoo, where it will join the cobra exhibit after spending 90 days in quarantine.

The San Diego Zoo has the anti-venom serum that would be needed if the snake strikes anyone.

Housed in a specific reptile container, the snake was transported from Los Angeles on the 5 Freeway in one of the zoo’s animal transport vehicles, accompanied by the zoo’s curator of reptiles.

“At first he was not happy and did a lot of hissing,” said reptile curator Kim Lovich. “But then he settled down and it was just a nice family trip to San Diego on a Friday afternoon.”


The gender of the snake is still unknown although for convenience, zookeepers are using the male pronoun. The quarantine may include a physical exam, blood work and an internal inspection to determine the gender, Lovich said.

The snake’s diet will consist mostly of mice and rats.

“They really like to eat rats,” Lovich said. “But he’s been through a lot, so it may take some time for him to settle down and start eating.”

The zoo has eight other cobras, including at least one of the same species, Lovich said. The snake has some abrasions, possibly from slithering under fences and into woodpiles, she said.


“It’s very apparent that he was captive bred,” Lovich said.

At the San Diego Zoo, the snake will serve an educational purpose.

“We want him to tell his story: that it’s not good to keep venomous reptiles as pets,” Lovich said.

The four-foot-long cobra was found Thursday hiding beneath a stack of wood in the semi-rural Thousand Oaks yard where it was first spotted. It was initially taken to the Los Angeles Zoo, which lacks the appropriate anti-venom serum.


The monocled cobra, first believed to be albino, is actually leucistic, meaning it lacks all pigment. It has blue eyes instead of the red that characterize an albino.

Zookeepers examined the cobra and discovered it still had its poison glands.

The cobra, native to Southeast Asia, was not microchipped, so identifying its owner will be challenging, officials said. If the snake is male, it could grow to more than seven feet in length.

Authorities began searching for the cobra Wednesday after receiving a report that it had attacked a 7-year-old whippet named Teko on Labor Day.


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