Banged up abroad – Sweden’s escaped cobra slips home

A king cobra that escaped from his new home in a Swedish aquarium turned up back in his terrarium about a week after he made his daring midnight escape.

Skansen Aquarium in Stockholm said in a Facebook post that the cobra, named Sir Vas, or Sir Hiss (before being clumsily rebranded “Houdini”) had returned of his own free will.

The deadly serpent vanished on October 22, believed to have slithered through a light fixture.

Sir Vas reappeared in his warm and dry home on Sunday after over a week of giving aquarium staff the slip. Sir Vas seems to be right at home in Sweden, much more like an unnamed Swedish prisoner, than Harry Houdini.

In 2013, an inmate at a minimum security Östragård prison in south-western Sweden asked for treatment for toothache, but to no avail. The convict, who was serving a one-month sentence, took matters into his own hands, walked out of the prison and visited the nearest dentist, where he had his tooth removed. He then called the cops, who drove him back to prison. Upon arrival, guards greeted him by adding one more day to his sentence.

Unlike the dental patient, zoo staff do not believe the snake left the building during his time on the loose. He was repeatedly spotted, but seeing a king cobra is not the same as capturing one.

The aquarium said the terrarium has now been secured and the fake Houdini will return to public display Monday.

Read the aquarium’s version of events here.