The kiss of the golden serpent

The Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus captured a Cape cobra at the Cape of Good Hope in 1758 and introduced it to science for the first time. Mike Burgess investigates why and how these incredibly well-adapted snakes are often involved in deadly interactions with humans.

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I have seen a Cape cobra in the wild just once in my life, near the historic town of Salem in the Eastern Cape. I had stopped my vehicle during a brutally hot day and there in the grass beside the road lay a stunningly beautiful honey-golden snake. I thought that it may be a mole snake, but when the reptile rose hissing and bearing a hood there was no doubt that it was one of Africa's most feared snakes – the Cape cobra.

I have also lost a loved one to a Cape cobra – my dog Moya. I adored this Border Collie more than most people and by 2015 I had decided to give her a well-deserved retirement (she was well over 10 years old) on my in-law's farm Koesberg near Zastron in the southern part of the Free State. When hot, Moya would curl up against a log near the front door of the Koesberg home, but one day she was found dead a little way from the house in a patch of long grass. A few days later, a worker moved the log Moya had loved so much and an aggressive Cape cobra came floating out in pursuit of the screaming Basotho person. I am in no doubt that Moya died from this snake's powerful neurotoxin.

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