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The Bronx Zoo cobra that made headline by slithering out of her coop has just gotten a newfangled name : Mia
The name , vote on by members of the public , is a play on M.I.A , or " missing in action . " After the cobraescaped March 25only to be found six Day afterward coiled up in the reptilian mansion , the zoological garden received 33,000 name suggestions for the slippy serpent . Zoo official cut the tilt down to five finalists :
Hide and sssseek: Sneaky snake was lurking at home.
Mia is an Egyptian cobra , which can rise to be about 6 feet ( 2 beat ) long . She backpack a deadly raciness : Her venom is a neurotoxin that can kill a person .
" They ’re not really something you want to be burn by , " Stan Mays , the curator of herpetology at the Houston Zoo , told LiveScience . He said the Egyptian cobra he ’s worked with are " somewhat feisty , " though they seem to mellow with years .
After the escapism , Bronx Zoo officials warned that it could be week before Mia showed her scaly face around the reptile menage . Snakes can go weeks without water andmonths without food .
But during a aurora expanse of the building on March 31 , zookeepers set up the cobra curled up a few hundred foot from the inclosure she ’d get out behind . Despite the fantastical exploits chronicled by@BronxZooCobra , the ophidian ’s unofficial Twitter provender , it seems Mia did n’t stray far from home at all .
Mia will be on public exhibit on Saturday , when the reptile house re - opens .
you’re able to followLiveSciencesenior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter@sipappas .
