Can you identify this snake?

So today - another little visitor to the hotel Reception. And this time - simply too small to identify. At first, I thought he might be a baby brown house snake - because of colour, but the head was enormous, and whereas a brown house snake has a triangular-shaped head, this fellow was more 'coffin' in shape. As I said, his head was huge in comparison with the rest of his body.

He also raised his head instinctively - and though he didn't 'spread', my feeling is that he may well be a baby Mozambique spitting cobra. The other thing which made me err on the side of caution was the fact that, as tiny as he was, he turned to face every movement of my hand - obviously ready to do his best to inflict harm.

I trapped him in a plastic ice-cream container and placed a pen next to him so that his true size can be seen. Whatever the case - he was tiny, and had probably hatched that day - certainly not more than three days ago.....

Because I wasn't entirely sure what he was, the only thing to do was to release him. With many of our poisonous snakes here, the newly-hatched ones are just as lethal as the adults in terms of the potency of their venom. So this little chap was sent on his way, and very soon was lost in the undergrowth.

This is my youngest daughter Courtney, playing with what is definitely a brown house snake. As you can see - the head is somewhat triangular, though the colour of this and the baby are almost identical.

And my middle daughter Dayna with the same snake..... She apparently finds snakes more ticklish than scary!

Zim kids are a little strange that way!

If anyone out there can identify the baby from the somewhat grainy picture above - I would love to know that you think?

Have a great day!