King Cobra

The king cobra is the world's longest venomous snake; since 2024 it has been treated as four species, and the one discussed here is the northern king cobra. Adults are olive green with black and white bands on the body that converge towards the head, a black tongue, a rounded snout and large, drab, black-edged shields on the crown, including a pair of big scales at the back of the head. Juveniles are black with white, yellow or buff chevrons pointing towards the head. Males are larger than females and paler in the breeding season. Adults are usually 3.2–4 m long, with a record of 5.85 m (Wikipedia, general species account).

The king cobra feeds mainly on other snakes, including rat snakes, kraits, cobras and even pythons, and on monitor lizards. It hunts mostly by day, picking up the scent of prey with its forked tongue, and swallows it whole. It is the only snake that builds an above-ground nest for its eggs, which the female gathers carefully and guards throughout incubation, when she will defend it fiercely. Away from the nest it is not considered aggressive and usually slips away from people. A 2024 revision split the king cobra into four species: the northern king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) is the widespread one, found from northern and eastern India and the Andaman Islands eastwards through Indochina, while the king cobras of the Western Ghats are now a separate species, O. kaalinga (Gowri Shankar et al. 2024, as reported by Mongabay India).