ABILENE, Texas — The Abilene Zoo said its king cobra, Walter, died Monday. The cobra was humanely euthanized because of multiple advanced age-related health complications, the zoo said.
Zoo records show Walter was at least 25 years old, exceeding the life expectancy of his wild counterparts by several years. Although 25 years old is likely well underestimated, the zoo said, Walter arrived at another zoological institute from India in 1997, at a size showing him to be far beyond a year old.
"But his birthday, from then on, represented the date he arrived from India. We can only speculate his true age, but estimate he was older than 30 years of age. Walter arrived here at the Abilene Zoo in 2007, where he would go on to inspire millions of visitors," the zoo said in a release.
While many king cobras are typically quick to display their hood and hiss, Walter was never one to get defensive, especially in his later years.
“He was very inquisitive, and he often would just sit back and watch us work with a ‘Whatcha doing?’ kind of look." Matthew Foster, Abilene zookeeper, said. "With King Cobras said to be one of the more intelligent snakes, you could almost feel him trying to figure out what was happening. And when he decided there was no threat, he would just slide back into his hide and let us do what we needed to do.”
Walter was one of the most recognizable animals inside the Reptile House.
A little less than one month ago, the zoo's black rhino, Macho, died.
