White cobra leaves LA Zoo for San Diego Zoo

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The elusive white cobra that roamed Thousand Oaks for days arrived at the San Diego Zoo, its new home, on Friday.

Using specialized tools, reptile experts at the Los Angeles Zoo got the highly venomous snake into a glass enclosure. After a visual exam, the cobra appeared to be doing well.

"My preliminary assessment is it's in good weight, it's got some small nicks and scratches, it rubbed its nose pretty good on something, but it seems to be in really good shape," said Ian Recchio, the reptile curator at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Recchio says the monocled cobra is probably seven to 10 years old, and while it's white, it's not actually an albino.

"In captivity they're actually quite common. They're bred in the exotic pet trade for certain traits such as albinism and leucism, which we're seeing in this case," Recchio said.

The highly venomous snake was captured Thursday in Thousand Oaks. After an intense three-day search, the snake was spotted crossing into the same yard where it was first seen Monday night. Animal control officers from L.A. County transported the snake to the zoo. Recchio said the cobra's venom glands appear to be intact.

"We looked at it, we didn't see any suture marks, it looks to be an intact cobra," he said.

The cobra became something of a media sensation during its days of independence. It made a splash on Twitter. The story of a white cobra on the prowl in a suburban neighborhood made national news was reminiscent of another exotic animal saga: Reggie the alligator. Reggie was first spotted on the shores of Machado Lake in Harbor City back in 2005. Reggie also captured the national media spotlight before being captured in 2007.

While Reggie now resides at the L.A. Zoo, the cobra will not be staying at the L.A. Zoo. It's going elsewhere, for very practical reasons.

"It would be interesting to display, we would like to display something like this, but the reality is the anti-venom for this species comes from Thailand, it would take me weeks to acquire it," said Recchio. "It's extremely expensive. There's hundreds of types of anti-venoms throughout the world and we just don't have the resources to stock them all."

Instead, the white cobra was sent to the San Diego Zoo home.

"They have Asian cobra anti-venom so it can safely be kept there. They have the resources and the trained staff to deal with it," Recchio said.

Meanwhile, the search for the snake's owner continues. It is illegal to have a cobra in California unless you obtain the proper wildlife permits. But Recchio says people often purchase them on the black market.