Bronx Zoo cobra found!

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The search is over! The missing cobra at the Bronx Zoo has been found, ending a six day search for the snake.

Turns out, the snake never left the House of Reptiles, where it was found by workers just after 9:00 this morning, officials said.

The Egyptian cobra is now under observation, officials said. Bronx Zoo director Jim Breheny says she is in good health.

Workers had no problem catching the snake after findng it coiled in a corner. They used specially designed equipment to recapture it.

"The key strategy here was patience," Breheny said.

The reptile house had been closed since the snake went missing on Friday.

Wildlife Conservation Society staff conducted sweeping searches around the clock on a daily basis. In addition, staff implemented a system for tracking any movement by the snake that would help aid in its capture.

The difficulty was that the small snake, which is months old and weighs about 3 ounces, had sought out a secure hiding spot within the holding areas of the Reptile House - an extremely complex environment with pumps, motors, and other mechanical systems.

Officials wanted to create an atmosphere for the snake to come out, so they kept the lights dim and noise low

Meanwhile, the Twitter account of someone purporting to be the slithering escapee now has more than 200,000 followers.

It had written about "Sex and the City," saying: "I'm totally a SSSamantha."

And it tweeted while staring from atop the Empire State Building: "All the people look like little mice. Delicious little mice."

The user behind BronxZoosCobra refused to identify him or herself or say who was typing the tweets.

Its last tweet, "If you see a bag of peanuts inexplicably moving along the ground at Yankee Stadium today. Just ignore it. It's probably nothing."

Opened in 1899, the Bronx Zoo is run by the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society.

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Online: BronxZoo.com

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