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ANIMALS

‘Houdini’ cobra returns to enclosure at Swedish zoo

After a week of evading staff and sophisticated customs equipment in the nooks and crannies of a Stockholm aquarium, a king cobra returned to its enclosure on its own, officials said on Sunday.

king cobra
The King Cobra at the Skansen Aquarium. Photo: Skansen Aquarium.

“We got him back!” the Skansen Aquarium said in a statement Sunday.

The snake, named Sir Väs (Sir Hiss), slithered off last weekend through a lamp fixture in a terrarium where he had been brought to a few days earlier.

Following the disappearing act, the venomous vagrant was renamed Houdini, in honour of the famed human escape artist.

The aquarium’s reptile section was closed off and staff spread flour and deployed sticky traps to try and capture the scaly fugitive.

When that didn’t work, the aquarium deployed special cameras and got help from Swedish customs agents who used handheld X-ray machines.

The sneaky serpent was finally found to be hiding inside an interior wall.

“The clever Houdini however moved several times when we sawed open several holes to get to him,” the aquarium said.

At one point, the runaway reptile even stuck his head out of a hatch.

“Then he realised that customs agents were in the building and quickly moved to the next hiding spot,” the zoo said, adding that “you can run from customs, but you can’t hide.”

Overnight Saturday/Sunday, the snake apparently decided to give up the life of an outlaw.

READ ALSO: Highly venomous king cobra still at large at Stockholm zoo

“It turned out that he had given up and crawled back to his safe and warm home,” the aquarium said.

While the reptile section was again open to the public, Houdini has been placed under “house arrest” for observation and would not be on view to visitors until Monday, it said.

King cobras, originally from South and Southeast Asia, are the world’s longest venomous snakes.

They mainly prey on other snakes but their bites can be fatal to humans if untreated.

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ANIMALS

Did Swedish authorities just make it legal to own a unicorn?

No, but Jönköping county governor’s reply to an eight-year-old girl’s Christmas wish list is warming the hearts of a nation, after she issued her with a permit for the mythical creature.

Did Swedish authorities just make it legal to own a unicorn?

“Hej! My name is Elsie and I am 8 years old and live on a farm,” the girl’s letter reads, sent to the county administrative board in Jönköping, southern Sweden, a few weeks before the holidays.

“I want a unicorn but my mum and dad say that I need to ask you for permission. Please can I have permission to have a unicorn at home if we find some or if I get some for Christmas? Please answer quickly!”

Elsie’s letter to Jönköping county governor. Photo: supplied

A few days later, Elsie received a signed letter from Helena Jonsson, Jönköping county governor, informing her that her permit had been granted.

“We approve your permit for unicorn ownership on one condition, that you look after it/them well,” Jonsson wrote, before adding that she’d like Elsie to send her a picture if she finds a unicorn or gets one for Christmas.

Her letter quickly went viral in Sweden after Elsie’s mother Viktoria shared it in an open Facebook group.

“She thinks it’s great and now has high hopes for a magic Christmas present under the tree!” Viktoria told The Local.

When The Local spoke to county governor Helena Jonsson, she wasn’t able to confirm whether the permit was legally binding.

“There’s no legislation concerning unicorns,” she laughed, “so it’s unlikely.”

Unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone in Jönköping is now allowed to keep pet unicorns, either.

“Well, she was allowed one on the condition that she looks after it properly, and then I also told her that if she finds one or has any proof that they exist, then I’d like her to send us a picture. So I guess it depends on the type of unicorn you mean.”

The letter from county governor Helena Jonsson to eight-year-old Elsie. Photo: supplied

Jonsson said that media interest in the story had been “astonishing”.

“It’s been a surprise and a bit of a shock how much interest there has been in this application,” she said.

“It’s a story about a girl who is determined, who just before Christmas wants to make sure there are no issues with her Christmas wish list and who wants to make sure she gets a quick response.”

“It goes straight to the heart, and it’s really, really cute,” Jonsson added, adding that she has a grandchild that also enjoys dressing up as a unicorn.

The letter was originally sent to Jönköping local government office. Workers were originally not sure of how they should respond, so they sent the unusual request on to the county governor.

“We don’t have any kind of process or legislation in place for unicorn permits,” Jonsson said.

When asked whether the county had ever received similar requests, Jonsson, who has been county governor since 2018, said this was the first one she’d come across.

“What kind of excuse can I come up with now?” Elsie’s mother wrote in her Facebook post. “And what kind of stable does it need?”

Elsie’s not the first child ever to be granted a permit to keep unicorns, though.

In 2022, a young girl in California named Madeline was given permission by the LA County Department of Animal Care and Control to keep a pet unicorn, as long as she promised to look after it, by giving it “regular access to sunlight, moonbeams and rainbows”, feeding it watermelon at least once a week, and promising to polish its horn at least once a month with a soft cloth.

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