Entomology, Ornithology & Herpetology: Current Research
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Habitat and Distribution of King Cobra

Rithvik Singh^{* *}Correspondence: Rithvik Singh, Department of Zoology, Utkal University, Odisha, India, Email:

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Description

King cobras are mostly found in the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, southern areas of East Asia and Southeast Asia, in Bhutan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and southern China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, In India, they occur from Goa; Western Ghats of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. These snakes living in dense highland forests, bamboo woods, mangrove marshlands, and smooth agricultural areas. They mostly live in the areas dotted with lakes and rivers and can also swim in rivers.

Habitat and Distribution

King cobra, also known as hamadryade, is the world’s largest poisonous snake, mostly found in the Philippines and Indonesia and forests from India through Southeast Asia. The maximum length of this snake is 5.65 meters which are about 18.5 feet, but not more than 3.7 meters (13 feet). The king cobra is the individual member of its species. It comes under the family of Elapidae, known as the cobra family. Hamadryad, the common name for the King cobra, is a Greek word meaning “wood nymph.” The main character that distinguishes the king cobra from other cobras is having 11 large scales on the crown of its head. Adults may be, green, yellow, black, or brown. The back is usually underlined by yellowish or whitish crossbars and the underside is in a single color that May or may not is underlined with bars. The throat of the king cobra is light creamy or light brown. Juvenile king cobras are black and smaller than other cobras. Fledglings are about 46–56 cm (18.5–22 inches) lengthy and are black in color with white or creamy lines. The king cobra is a vigorous predator. It kills almost entirely on other snakes, stalking in forests, Villages, and fields in the daytime and nighttime. The king cobra is extreme predators are humans, who yield it and use certain body parts for nutrition, drug, and leather.

Like all other snakes, they bite the prey whole, head first. The King Cobra snakes eat mainly snakes. The King Cobra snake selects non-poisonous snakes; however, it will also eat other poisonous snakes like Indian Cobras and kraits mainly Cannibalism. When food is infrequent, King Cobras will also feed on other small vertebrates like lizards. Both top and bottom jaws are attached to each other with flexible tendons, which make snake swallow animals wider than itself. Snakes cannot chew their prey. The food for a king cobra is digested with the help of strong acids which are present in the stomach of snakes. Once the cobra took a large meal they can live up to 6 months without food because of their slow metabolic rate, King cobras mainly kill at daytime as they can’t see at night time

Conclusion

They breed mainly in early summer or in late spring. After mating, the male cobra will come back to its specific home. The female cobra will then lay up to 11-25 eggs. The offspring are self-regulating as soon as they are born and can kill the size of a rat. Breeding will take place when the two snakes twist their bodies for long days. Females take 55 days’ time to lay the eggs. The King Cobra snake's average life span is about 21 years.