Another video I'm liberating from the Evil Empire, because why not? Frankly I know very little about these animals, but let's see what I can scrounge up:
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"One of the most majestic creatures IME. Also extremely intelligent as far as snakes go (which isn’t very far), and able to use that completely to their advantage. I would like to add that they also growl when angry, and if you’ve never heard it, it’s an absolutely terrifying and extremely unnerving sound that will send shivers down your spine." --u/cncomg
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The king cobra ( Ophiophagus hannah ) is the world's longest venomous snake, capable of reaching up to 18 feet in length. Far from being a traditional cobra, it is the only snake that actively builds nests for its eggs and possesses venom strong enough to kill an adult elephant(!) --Google
I'm really curious about what's happening here. If anyone knows about snakes I'm just curious about what the snake is getting out of this. It looks like it's enjoying this but first of all I know you can't make assumptions about how an animal is behaving but it's certainly not getting trying to leave. Does it like the moisture, or the feeling of the water itself, or is it cooling off, all of the above?
It could be coming up to a shedding cycle. Water softens the skin and helps with shedding, and snakes will actively rub against textured surfaces, like the arm in this video, to work the old skin loose. That would explain both the rubbing and its tolerance of the handler. The cool water may also just feel good on a hot day, since snakes are ectotherms.
While we like to project our emotions onto snakes the way we do with other animals, snakes are fairly simple compared to mammals, and there's no real evidence they form social bonds the way a dog does. A snake can be seen preferring one handler over another, but that's usually closer to comfortable tolerance than genuine affection. This one is likely habituated to people in a captive setting, so it doesn't read humans as a threat. That relaxed, approaching behavior gets perceived as enjoyment when it's really just a snake that feels safe and is getting something useful out of the contact.
Or it could just be a good snake who wants pets and we should love it and care for it and give it all the frozen mice it wants.
I mean, I think we should do that regardless. Thanks for the information though. I don't know a lot about snakes, so I only had general guesses. That all makes sense I didn't think about shedding specifically.
Fascinating...
It could also be confusing the hose for another snake. this guy sure is barfy
lol, and I already had high cholesterol