Zoo keeper bitten by cobra out of danger

Zoo keeper Ronaldo “Ron-Ron” Aventurado is in stable condition after surviving two near-fatal bites by a King Cobra found just outside the Cebu city zoo.

“He’s now able to move his lower and upper extremities,” said surgeon Vincent Matthew Roble, of the patient in the Cebu City Medical Center.

“His strength is coming back and the swelling is going down.”

Aventurado’s breathing also improved yesterday and his respirator was turned off.

Aventurado was rushed unconscious to the hospital Tuesday afternoon, and was saved by a timely dose of anti-venom flown in by private plane from the Camiguin provincial hospital after emergency calls facilitated by Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem of the the City Traffic Operations Management.

Jakosalem visited the zoo keeper yesteday, who was awake and gave a thumbs up sign.

Aventurado had tried to catch the snake by hand, and had the reptile in his grasp when it slipped away and bit his hand.

He had told co-workers that he has been bitten by snakes before “more than a hundred times” and wasn’t afraid to handle them.

Asked by Jakosalem yesterday if he was in pain the employee said no.

Asked if he wanted to return to his job in the zoo, Aventurado nodded.

As of yesterday, the patient was treated with anti-biotics after being given four vials or 4 doses of anti-venom every two hours.

The captured King Cobra has drawn several visitors to the Cebu zoo visitors, now kept in a glass display box in the zoo manager’s office.

One of the visitors was Indian snake expert, Soham Murkerjee of the Humane Society International, who who confirmed that the snake was a King Cobra.

King Cobras live mainly in the rain forests and plains of India, southern China, and Southeast Asia, according to National Geographic.

Their venom is strong enough to bring down an elephant or 20 people.

Murkerjee is in town to do lectures on proper wildlife animal handling from August 4-19.

“It just happened that I am here to meet with local animal handlers and teach them the proper ways to handle wildlife when the accident happened,” Murkerjee said.

When asked where the venomous snake came from, zoo manager Giovanni Romarate said he believes it was came with truckloads of donated limestone soil for a road improvement project of the zoo.

“After the truck unloaded the limestone, a passerby shouted that there was a snake so we rushed there. That’s when Ronron was bitten,” Romarate said.

Murkerjee said he is “not ruling that out” but suggested other possibilities.

“It could be an escaped pet, or transported from somewhere else,” he said.

There was even speculation that the cobra could have been the small snake turned over to the zoo two years ago. Cebu Daily News published the photo of the turnover. (See separate story).

Murkerhee said the snake is definitely not an Indian King cobra but another king cobra species, and could possibly be an unconfirmed new type.

Researchers are currently studying seven possible king cobra sub-species and one of it is from the Philippines, he added.

He said the King Cobra doesn’t attack humans unless it is threatened.

The snake is “shy and will avoid humans whenever possible, but they are fiercely aggressive when cornered,” according to the National Geographic web site.

To demonstrate this, Murkerhee took out the cobra from its glass enclosure and held it by the tail, while it slithered on the ground.