Quote Originally Posted by Neal View Post
I never said they couldn't strike upwards. I said hooded striking in an upwards direction, no. I still say that.

Do I have any proof that I pat a cobra on the head? No. Could I? Yes, but it's not something I would do again. I did it under some circumstances when I was younger and unemployed with nothing better to do. I would never do something like that again. I would never own a cobra because I know that I would try to hold it sooner or later and get bit. For this reason I don't deal with anything venomous, aside from my Rufous which have never attempted to bite me with the exception of me doing a study when I was hand feeding my smaller one which is also the calmest of the three.

I know all venomous snakes have the ability to deliver a dry bite, that's common sense. I was simply stating that a lot of snakes will deliver a dry bite the first time in attempt to scare the animal off and save their venom, or avoid potential injury. I would never assume that the bite would be dry either. I was stating a fact on why I said either that them or the Black Mambas are probably the smartest snake. Though nobody can prove anything about any species being the smartest, I'm simply going off my assumption. Could I be wrong? Probably. I'm just going off of what I've dealt with and seen and witnessed. Also I've never seen a black mamba first hand in this case but I've done quite a bit of research on them.
Like I have said before, they can strike upwards from a hooded position. Whether they unhood during their strike doesn't matter, they struck upwards from a hooded position.

You're just another google expert. So I'm just going to leave it at that.