• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 1, 2011

Animal Planet has moved swiftly to create a documentary about the deadly Egyptian cobra famous for being lost in the Bronx Zoo before being found Thursday.

Not.

In a clever stunt that had at least one Web site initially turning it into a real story and a TV producer wanting to set up a segment about it, Animal Planet put out a press release "announcing" the production.

What threw some off was that the release didn't acknowledge the caper until "Editor's Note: April Fools fun courtesy of Animal Planet!" appeared at the end.

Of course, it is not so implausible that Animal Planet would want to do a show about the snake that has garnered so much attention. Animal Planet chief Marjorie Kaplan was in on the stunt and offered a faux quote in the release.

The stunt had roots in a clandestine tweeter, @BronxZooCobra, who has amassed 222,000-plus followers pretending to be the snake. So Animal Planet "announced" it would air the special two-hour documentary, "@BronxZoosCobra: Snake on the Town," which would include "never-before-seen footage, the cobra's home movies, photography and an exclusive interview with confessionals."

The @BronxZoosCobra tweeter expanded its exposure by "taking over" Ryan Seacrest's Twitter account Friday. One tweet on Secrest's page said: "Seacrest out! @BronxZoosCobra in! I'm hijacking Ryan's Twitter & fixed his website ..."