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Back at work, mingling with danger

A recent snake attack has given a teen who works at the Tarpon Springs Aquarium a newfound respect for the awesome creatures she deals with.

By ROBIN STEIN
Published January 22, 2007

TARPON SPRINGS

She's swimming with sharks, feeding the alligators, but Alison Cobianchi is still staying away from snakes.

It has been three weeks since the 18-year-old college freshman was attacked by Chloe, a 14-foot Burmese python at the Tarpon Springs Aquarium. Cobianchi's knuckles are still red and swollen where Chloe's teeth punctured her skin.

For nearly 10 minutes, the snake's half-inch-long, needle-sharp teeth were twisting increasingly deeper through tendons and bone, and the 100-pound trunk of muscle was coiled all the way up her right arm, gripping increasingly tighter. A co-worker wrestled with the slithering tail wrapping around her waist and neck.

"I think the pain affected me more than fear," Cobianchi said Friday. "She was moving her teeth, wiggling them."

Cobianchi said she was hysterical, between the sharp pain shooting up from her hand and her arm steadily being crushed. She said she just tried not to look down at her arm inside Chloe's glass enclosure or the tail writhing through the crack.

"I knew she wouldn't kill me," she said.

"It was a long 10 minutes."

Chloe's strike was not fatal, or even serious enough to warrant an ambulance escort to Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital.

But the encounter transpired in front of a roomful of horrified holiday tourists and was broken up only when a Tarpon Springs police officer arrived, with a Taser that shocked Chloe's jaws unlocked and sent her recoiling in retreat.

Now, Cobianchi thinks it was actually a positive experience.

"I don't want to say it was a good thing that I got attacked," she said. "But as far as handling dangerous animals, I learned a lot about keeping my guard up and giving trust they don't really deserve."

A way with animals

When Cobianchi first saw the help wanted sign outside the aquarium six months ago, she was working at Winn-Dixie, a job she had for nearly three years. After graduating from J.W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey, she enrolled at St. Petersburg College.

She was just hoping to volunteer, but aquarium owner Scott Konger said he could tell she had a way with the animals and offered her a position.

On her first day, Cobianchi was handed a baby alligator, she said.

"I've always been interested in animals," she said. "Actually, when I graduated, I thought I was going to be a teacher."

Those aspirations changed almost immediately, once she realized how much she relished being around the animals - especially Chloe, a snake she considered "the cutest."

Chloe was a slender 12 feet and weighed half as much when the snake arrived at the aquarium seven years ago, Konger said.

Now, Chloe eats two 10-pound rabbits every other week in the summer and once a month in the winter. No matter how much she eats, she is always hungry, Konger said.

Like all snakes, Chloe is prone to confusion about her food.

Konger said about a year and a half ago, Chole bit his arm and clung on for about five minutes before realizing that he was not part of the rat he had dropped in her enclosure.

Konger said he noticed that some of the staff members have getting a bit too relaxed around her, putting their faces right up to hers.

"When you work with animals that have small brains, big jaws and sharp teeth, there's always that potential for something to happen," he said.

He reminded handlers to keep their distance but was not particularly worried about Chloe.

"Sharks could potentially do more serious harm," he said. "If a shark bit her hand like that - it could take her hand off."

Konger said the three nurse sharks - because of their size - posed the most danger.

'Handler error' found

On Friday, Cobianchi's 5-foot-2, 115-pound frame was wrapped in two wet suits, and she seemed perfectly placid.

She was not scared, she said. It was more like the flutter of butterflies before performing in a school play.

Minutes later, she plunged into the 120,000-gallon turquoise tanks filled with a forboding school of mismatched fish.

Cobianchi waved, then snuggled with Bonnie, an 8-foot nurse shark. She reached with her bare fingers to stroke the mouth of a goliath grouper named Rupert, which weighs 250 pounds.

Konger said he was not surprised that Cobianchi returned to the tank so soon after the attack and guessed that she'll be handling snakes someday, too.

But Chloe's demonstration has been canceled indefinitely, Konger said, as he re-examines safety procedures. If the snake shows return, he said, he plans to keep a Taser on hand.

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigator concluded that the attack was the result of "handler error," spokesman Gary Morse said.

"It was found that the snake was ready to eat, and it mistook the handler's hand for food."

Cobianchi said her hand aches still, especially when the weather is cold or rainy. She is not angry with Chloe, she said, just acutely aware of what the snake is capable of and more respectful. The giant python still pops up in her dreams almost every night.

Cobianchi said she might very well warm up to snakes over time, but Rupert is her new favorite for now.

At least until she is able to pursue her ultimate goal - the big cats.

[Last modified January 23, 2007, 08:17:52]