Bronx Zoo cobra that went missing is named Mia

The Bronx Zoo will announce the winning name for the Egyptian cobra on Thursday. STORY HIGHLIGHTSThe snake was named Mia after vote sponsored by Bronx Zoo and newspaper, officials sayThe Egyptian cobra captured public imagination when it escaped last monthVisitors to Bronx Zoo can see Mia on Saturday, zoo says New York (CNN) -- An Egyptian cobra that turned into a media darling after its escape and subsequent capture at New York's Bronx Zoo was named Mia on Thursday after a public vote.

The name is a play on the days when the snake was missing in action, zoo officials said.

The Bronx Zoo and New York Daily News asked the public to vote on the best name for the mischievous cobra. After receiving more than 34,000 suggestions, officials whittled the list down to five nominations before Mia was chosen.

Mia received 15,972 votes, or 27 percent of the total vote, a zoo statement said.

The four runners-up were Subira, which means patient in Egypt, with 14,016 votes (24 percent); Amaunet, an ancient Egyptian goddess, meaning 'the female hidden one," with 11,672 votes (20 percent); Cleopatra, the last ruler of ancient Egypt who supposedly killed herself by means of an Egyptian cobra bite, with 10,730 votes (18 percent); and Agnes, Greek for pure or holy and also a reference to St. Agnes, with 6,777 votes (11 percent).

"Now that Mia has received her official name and has settled into her exhibit at the Bronx Zoo's Reptile House, the building will be re-opened to the public on Saturday, April 9 and visitors will be able to see her for the first time," the statement said.

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Missing Bronx Zoo cobra found -- in Reptile House

Update at 4:45 p.m. ET: The adolescent Egyptian cobra, which weighs about 3 ounces, was found in the Reptile House about 9 a.m. ET, Bronx Zoo Director Jim Breheny said at a news conference, ABC News reports. She was "coiled, sort of secluded in a dark corner" of a holding area, a couple of hundred feet from her enclosure.

In a statement, the zoo described her "secure hiding place" as "a non-public, off-exhibit area" that is "an extremely complex environment with pumps, motors and other mechanical systems."

A Reptile House employee used special tongs to nab the creature that had eluded capture for a week.

The snake will be observed and evaluated before being returned to exhibit. The Reptile House will remain closed until then.

By Doug Stanglin
USA TODAY

MyFox5 reports that Wildlife Conservation Society officials are expected to announce shortly that a poisonous Egyptian cobra that was missing at the Bronx Zoo Reptile House has been found.

Officials said earlier that the 20-inch- long snake likely found a safe place within the isolated area of the reptile house and would come out when he got hungry or thirsty.

In the meantime, the Reptile House has remained closed, although it is not at all clear that thousands had been clamoring to get in.

During the search, a cobra that goes by the handle BronxZoosCobra popped up on Twitter.

Its most recent entry:

If you see a bag of peanuts inexplicably moving along the ground at Yankee Stadium today. Just ignore it. It's probably nothing.

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