A cobra spent the night under sleeping siblings' pillow in India, and neither child was bitten
A family in Bengaluru, India, woke to an almost unthinkable discovery: A cobra had spent the night in bed with a sleeping brother and sister, settling near their heads after climbing in through a window. Neither sibling was hurt.
Here's what to know
Asianet Newsable reported that a cobra, estimated at four to five feet long, slipped through a bedroom window in Bengaluru's Bhairaveshwara Nagara neighborhood.
While a pair of siblings slept, the cobra climbed onto their bed, passed over them, and burrowed under the pillow where their heads rested.
The children felt something brush across them in the dark but mistook it for a rat, drifting back to sleep, unaware they spent hours lying inches from a venomous snake.
As they folded their bedsheets, they lifted the pillow and found the cobra with its hood spread. They screamed and ran from the room.
The commotion brought their parents running, and they were startled to find the cobra still there.
More background
A cobra entering a home through a window demonstrates how easily animals can end up inside living spaces when human development overlaps with wild habitat.
As cities and neighborhoods expand into areas that once belonged to wildlife, snakes and other animals often lose easy access to their natural surroundings and start turning up in gardens, courtyards, and even bedrooms while looking for shelter, warmth, or prey like rodents.
Snake rescuer Nagendra answered the family's call, captured the cobra, and set it free in a nearby forest.
Where can I learn more?
The Bengaluru family's scare is one of several recent cases of cobras turning up where people sleep.
• In Vietnam, a mother brushed against a cobra crawling across her bed beside her child.
• In Mariannhill, South Africa, rescuers found a cobra in a bed after a family feared it may be a mamba.
• At a hotel in Krabi, Thailand, a cobra was spotted by the bed .
• In Kollam, India, a snake fell from the rafters onto a sleeping woman at night.
• In India, a nearly 6-foot cobra sent a family fleeing after appearing in their kitchen.
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