Cobra recorded eating rice in Hualien City

A Taiwan cobra (Naja atra) was spotted eating rice in Hualien City recently, and a video of the incident was uploaded to social media.

According to reports in Liberty Times and SETN, the video was recorded on July 18 at Meilunshan Park.

A Liberty Times reporter interviewed Ms Fan, who is credited with recording the video. Fan told the reporter that she had left a plate of rice out to feed stray dogs in the park.

At 11:00 am in July 18, Fan had gone to the park to replenish the dish when she spotted a cobra eating the rice. The cobra quickly slipped away on her approach, but 5 minutes later, two cobras returned, taking turns to gobble up chunks of rice.

Fan took shelter in a nearby building and took video footage of the incident from a window.

The video was uploaded to Facebook by Hualien County Councillor Wu Dong-sheng yesterday, and has since generated more than 70,000 views.

A herpetologist was quoted as saying that if he hadn’t seen the video, he wouldn’t have believed that cobras could actually eat rice.

The Taiwan cobra is known to usually enjoy a diet of rodents, snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, birds, bird eggs, and fish.

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