ok. i had to look this up, because this seems just too ridiculous. and wiki does not disappoint: “…
the hognose snake will often roll onto its back and play dead with its mouth open and tongue lolling, going as far as to emit a foul musk from the cloaca.
Emission of cloacal musk is considerably less likely than in many other
species. If the snake is rolled upright while in this state, it will
often roll over again as if to insist that it is really dead.”
This is a hognose snake, trying to look big and scary. Not a cobra! This guy can’t kill you. They’re rear-fanged venomous snakes, so they have to have something fairly deep in their mouth (nearly swallowing it) to get their venomous fangs into it, and their venom isn’t lethal to humans anyway. They also don’t tend to bite, they mostly just hiss and puff and then try to play dead.
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