A RARE cobra scared a woman’s chickens to death during a two-month standoff in a southwestern China village in Yunnan Province.
The woman surnamed Li said she found a cobra snake in her house at the end of March. Superstitious villagers told her it was bad luck to kill a snake and she was too scared to tackle it, Yunnan.cn reported today.
The cobra later became a frequent visitor in Li’s house. Li called police every time she saw the snake but it would disappear when officers came round. Her chickens kept in the yard all died without any wounds, the report said.
Li had no idea what attracted the snake until police finally seized it last Wednesday. They discovered it hiding in a small cavity near a toad.
Officers said the cobra must have been waiting to kill the toad. The snake will be released into the wild as it is a rare species.