Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

North­ern India, east to south­ern Peo­ple's Re­pub­lic of China, in­clud­ing Hong Kong and Hainan; south through­out the Malay Penin­sula, and east to west­ern In­done­sia and the Philip­pines.

• Biogeographic Regions
• oriental
  • native

Habi­tat

Near streams in dense or open for­est, bam­boo thick­ets, ad­ja­cent agri­cul­tural areas, and dense man­grove swamps.

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• rainforest
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The King Cobra's av­er­age size is 10-12 feet, but can reach 18 feet. The full grown King Cobra is yel­low, green, brown, or black. There are usu­ally yel­low­ish or white cross-bars or chevrons on its body. The belly may be uni­form in color or or­na­mented with bars. The throat is light yel­low or cream-col­ored. The ju­ve­niles are jet-black, with yel­low or white cross-bars on the body and tail and four sim­i­lar cross-bars on the head. The King Cobra is re­garded as a fierce and ag­gres­sive snake, and its length and size give it an awe­some ap­pear­ance.

Re­pro­duc­tion

King Co­bras are oviparous and lay 21-40 eggs. The fe­male pushes leaves and branches into a nest pile where the eggs are in­cu­bated by the el­e­vated tem­per­a­tures of de­com­po­si­tion. The fe­male re­mains on top of the nest to guard the eggs, and the male also re­mains close by. Dur­ing the brood care pe­riod, the king cobra tends to be very ag­gres­sive to­ward ap­proach­ing hu­mans. Breed­ing usu­ally oc­curs from Jan­u­ary through April. The eggs of the king cobra in­cu­bate dur­ing spring and sum­mer, hatch­ing in the fall.

Lifes­pan/Longevity

• Average lifespan
  Sex: male
  Status: captivity

  17.1 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

These snakes are di­ur­nal(ac­tive by day) whereas other co­bras are com­monly ac­tive in the evening but not ex­clu­sively noc­tur­nal(ac­tive by night). Al­though the King Cobra is un­doubt­edly a very dan­ger­ous snake, it prefers to es­cape un­less it is cor­nered or pro­voked. This is not true of nest­ing fe­males, which may at­tack with­out provo­ca­tion. When in a threat dis­play, these snakes can raise the an­te­rior part of their body about one meter off the ground and are able to fol­low their enemy in this po­si­tion over con­sid­er­able dis­tances.

Food Habits

Ophio­ph­a­gus han­nah nor­mally re­stricts its diet to cold-blooded an­i­mals, par­tic­u­larly other snakes. Some spec­i­mens de­velop a rigid diet of a sin­gle species of snake and will refuse any other type. The snakes eaten by the King Cobra are mostly the larger harm­less species, such as Asian rat snakes, dhamans, and pythons up to about 10 feet in length.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

King Co­bras are among the most at­trac­tive high­lights in large dis­play ter­rar­i­ums at zoos.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

The venom of Ophio­ph­a­gus han­nah is very po­tent. It is a strong neu­ro­toxin, which af­fects res­pi­ra­tory cen­tres in the medulla of the brain. Death re­sults from res­pi­ra­tory ar­rest and car­diac fail­ure. Death may occur in a very short time, but, as with any bite, the lo­ca­tion of the bite and the ef­fi­cacy of first aid and med­ical treat­ment may delay or pre­vent death. The anti-venom, some­times re­ferred to as anti-venin, re­verses the ac­tions of the neu­ro­tox­ins (pro­teins and en­zymes). Anti-venin, even after five or six decades, is still the most trusted and com­monly used method in con­trol­ling snake venom poi­son­ing.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

King Co­bras, as well as all snakes, are threat­ened from the de­struc­tion of their habi­tats, and by per­se­cu­tion by hu­mans afraid of them

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

Con­trib­u­tors

Diana Young (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Cox, Merel J., 1991. The snakes of Thai­land and Their Hus­bandry. Krieger Pub­lish­ing Com­pany, Mal­abar, Florida.

Gharpurey, K.G., 1962. Snakes of India & Pak­istan. B.G. Dhawale at Kar­natak Print­ing Press, Chira Bazar, Bom­bay 2.

Jacob, Udo Dr. Obst, Fritz Ju­r­gen Obst, and Dr. Klaus Richter. 1984. The Com­pletely Il­lus­trated Atlas of Rep­tiles and Am­phib­ians For The Ter­rar­ium. Edi­tion Leipzig.

Mehrtens, John M. 1987. Liv­ing Snakes Of The World. Ster­ling Pub­lish­ing Co., Inc. New York. Blan­ford Press. Dorset, Eng­land.

Minton, Sher­man A., and Madge Ruther­ford Minton. 1973. Giant Rep­tiles. Li­brary of Con­gress.

Pit­man, R.S., 1974. A Guide To The Snakes of Uganda. Whel­don & Wes­ley, Ltd.

Re­itinger, Frank F., 1978. Com­mon Snakes of South East Asia and Hong Kong. 1978. South China Print­ing Com­pany Lim­ited.

Schnei­der, Greg., 1997. The Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan De­part­ment of Her­peta­l­ogy.