Cobras in HK?

Alright, as if I needed another reason not to lace up the running shoes I got it via a conversation with a fellow ex-pat who has been in HK for over 20 years. He’s an avid runner and we were swapping stories about wildlife we’ve seen on our runs thru the wilds of HK's jungle/woods/forest. I’d just finished telling him of my freak encounter with the little orange crab atop the Peak (elevation 1600 feet) when he blew that story out of the water by saying he recently encountered a fully hooded and hissing King Cobra on a trail on Victoria Peak!

I acted surprised, but must admit I was a bit dubious. I always think of HK as devoid of wildlife that hasn’t already been captured and either put in a tank outside a local restaurant or dried and bottled for medicinal purposes. But because I do a bit of trail-running on the Peak often thru dense vegetation where I can’t always see where I’m stepping, I felt I should do some of my own research on the subject. To my dismay, King Cobras do exist on HK Island, and on the Peak specifically. Now, I’m not afraid of snakes, but I am afraid of snakes that can kill me. Uncool.

I pulled up this 1938 entry from the Hong Kong Naturalist entitled Land Snakes of Hong Kong by G.A.C. Herklots. It is a really amusing read. Herklots was the local expert and snakes caught in the colony were sent in to his office for examination. In detailing how to submit snakes to his office, he counseled, “On one occasion a cobra was sent in from Cheung Chau and a careful Chinese had sewn up the mouth of the snake to prevent it biting; there is no need to take this sort of precaution, the snake does not like it and the task of unsewing an angry cobra is rather a tricky and risk business.”

So I will tread lightly on future trail runs, and perhaps carry a flute with me.