"My House Is His": Video of Hooded Cobra Backing into a Crack in a Building Terrifies SA

• A video posted by Slangboere captured a hooded cobra backing into a gap at the base of a building on 20 October
• The clip quickly went viral, with viewers entertained by the snake's unusual reverse movement
• South Africans flooded the comments with humour, but not everyone was laughing about what it could mean for their home

A short clip of a cobra coolly reversing into a crack in a wall has taken social media by surprise. It drew thousands of reactions from South Africans, equal parts amused and alarmed.

The footage, shared by the page Slangboere on 20 October, was filmed outdoors at ground level. It shows a cobra with its hood fully raised, positioned near the base of a building against a gravel surface.

Rather than striking or fleeing forward, the snake steadily retreats backwards into a crevice in the wall, disappearing from view in a slow, deliberate movement that left viewers both tense and tickled. The video by Slangboere tapped into a very real anxiety for many South Africans, particularly those in areas where encounters with venomous snakes are not uncommon. Cobras are among the most feared reptiles on the continent, capable of delivering a potentially fatal bite and, in the case of spitting cobras, spraying venom with startling accuracy. Spotting one near the foundation of a building is the kind of discovery that tends to linger in the mind long after the snake has vanished. Watch the cobra reverse into the wall crevice:

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The clip spread rapidly, and the comments section quickly became a space for South African humour at its finest.

Johann Kotze joked:

"Look how reverse he is, doesn't even look once in his Tru mirror."

Marina Kruger had a more dramatic take:

"Now my house is his."

Ali Noor offered a different theory altogether:

"Reversing snake? Somebody must be pulling him from behind wall, maybe?"

Other Briefly News stories about alarming snake encounters

• A viral TikTok clip posted by @mgazi18 captured a snake neatly coiled directly beneath the seat inside an outdoor portable toilet bowl.
• South Africans reacted to a dashcam clip that showed a massive green anaconda coiled on the side of a rural dirt road before aggressively lunging at a bakkie driving past.
• A video shared by snake-handling page Slangboere captured a massive black mamba draped over the rim of a corrugated metal water tank on a rural South African farmstead.

Source: Briefly News