King cobra

The King cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), also known as the Hamadryad, is a venomous snake species in the family Elapidae, endemic to forests from India through Southeast Asia. It is threatened by habitat destruction and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2010.It is the world's longest venomous snake. Adult king cobras are 3.18 to 4 m (10.4 to 13.1 ft) long. The longest known individual measured 5.85 m (19.2 ft).Despite the word 'cobra' in its common name, this species does not belong to the genus Naja, the true cobras, but is the sole member of its own genus Ophiophagus. It preys chiefly on other snakes and occasionally on some other vertebrates, such as lizards and rodents. It is a dangerous snake when agitated or provoked that has a fearsome reputation in its range, although it is typically shy and avoids confrontation with humans when possible.The king cobra is a prominent symbol in the mythology and folk traditions of India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. It is the national reptile of India. The king cobra was described and drawn by the Danish naturalist Theodore Edward Cantor in 1836, who gave it the scientific name Hamadryas hannah. Cantor had three specimens from the Sundarbans and one caught in the vicinity of Kolkata. It was moved to its own genus Ophiophagus by Albert Günther in 1864. A 2016 genetic analysis showed that the king cobra was an early offshoot of a lineage giving rise to the mambas, rather than the other cobras. Ophiophagus hannah belongs to the monotypic genus Ophiophagus in the family Elapidae, while most other cobras are members of the genus Naja. They can be distinguished from other cobras by size and hood. King cobras are generally larger than other cobras, and the stripe on the neck is a chevron instead of a double or single eye shape that may be seen in most of the other Asian cobras. Moreover, the hood of the king cobra is narrower and longer. A key to identification, clearly visible on the head, is the presence of a pair of large scales known as occipitals, located at the back of the top of the head. These are behind the usual 'nine-plate' arrangement typical of colubrids and elapids, and are unique to the king cobra. The skin of king cobra is dark olive or brown with black bands and white or yellow crossbands. The head is black with two crossbars near the snout and two behind the eyes. Adult king cobras are 3.18 to 4 m (10.4 to 13.1 ft) long. The longest known individual measured 5.85 m (19.2 ft).Its belly is cream or pale yellow.It has 17 to 19 rows of smooth scales. Ventral scales are uniformly oval shaped. Dorsal scales are placed in an oblique arrangement.Males have 235 to 250 ventral scales, while females have 239 to 265. The subcaudal scales are single or paired in each row, numbering 83 to 96 in males and 77 to 98 in females. Juveniles are shiny black with narrow yellow bands (can be mistaken for a banded krait, but readily identified with its expandable hood). The head of a mature snake can be quite massive and bulky in appearance, though like all snakes, it can expand its jaws to swallow large prey items. It has proteroglyph dentition, meaning it has two short, fixed fangs in the front of the mouth, which channel venom into the prey like hypodermic needles. The average lifespan of a wild king cobra is about 20 years. King cobras are sexually dimorphic in size, with males reaching larger sizes than females, which is an unusual trait among snakes whose females are usually larger than males. The length and mass of the snakes highly depend on their localities and some other factors. The king cobra typically weighs about 6 kg (13 lb). The longest known specimen was a captive one at the London Zoo, and grew to around 18.5 to 18.8 ft (5.6 to 5.7 m) before being euthanised upon the outbreak of World War II. The heaviest wild specimen was caught at Royal Island Club in Singapore in 1951, which weighed 12 kg (26 lb) and measured 4.8 m (16 ft), though an even heavier captive specimen was kept at New York Zoological Park and was measured as 12.7 kg (28 lb) at 4.4 m (14.4 ft) long in 1972.Some viper species, such as the eastern diamondback rattlesnake and the Gaboon viper, often much shorter in length but bulkier in build, rival the king cobra in average weight. The king cobra is distributed across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the southern areas of East Asia (where it is not common), in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and southern China. In India it has been recorded from Goa; Western Ghats of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu; east coastline of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha; Sundarban mangroves; Himalayan foothills from Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern parts of West Bengal to most of the north-east region and Andaman Islands. The type locality is the Sundarbans. It lives in dense highland forests, preferring areas dotted with lakes and streams. King cobra populations have dropped in some areas of its range because of the destruction of forests and ongoing collection for the international pet trade. It is listed as an Appendix II animal within CITES.