Profile
The King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) is the world's longest venomous snake, growing to a
length of 5.64 m and a weigh of up to 25 kg. The king cobra’s deadly hollow fangs are almost 8 to 10 mm long. It punches them into its prey, like hydrodermic needles, and injects the powerful venom. Because they are fixed to the upper jaw, they have to be short. If they were longer, the king might bite the floor of its mouth and commit royal suicide. Angled back into the snake’s mouth, the fangs help push the prey on its path to the stomach.
A regal bite delivers venom from glands attached to the fangs. The flexing of a small muscle forces the venom through the hollow fangs into the victim. Within minutes, neurotoxins stun the prey’s nervous system, especially the impulses for breathing. Other toxins start digesting the paralysed victim.
Drop for drop, a king cobra’s venom is actually less lethal than a common cobra’s. The king more than makes up for it by delivering more venom per bite—as much as 7 ml of liquid. That’s enough to kill an elephant, or 20 people.
The King Prowls During The Day
The king has a head as big as a man’s hand and can stand tall enough to look you straight in the eye. Its venom can stun your nervous system and stop your breathing.
Taste and smell merge for most snakes, thanks to the way their tongue and Jacobson’s organ
Wish we had one? Well we actually did. So did Ludwig Jacobson, the Danish anatomist for whom it’s named. Jacobson’s organ is found in human embryos, but it degenerates as the nervous system develops.
Threatening Stance
The king’s hood plays a big part in its fearsome “threat posture,” and is made by spreading the ribs in its neck. The king can stand up to one third of its total length, or from one or two 
To impress a rival, male king cobras resort to wrestling—male combat is a ritual conflict in which the first one to push the other’s head to the ground wins.
The Royal Meal
The king’s Latin name (Ophiophagus hannah) refers to its favourite meal— ophiophagus means snake-eater. Its culinary preferences probably gave the king cobra its English name.
King cobras prefer non-venomous snakes like the rat snake, but they also dine on venomous Indian cobras, kraits, and even small king cobras, thus earning the ignoble title, ‘cannibal.’
With no limbs or cutting teeth, the king is unable to tear its food. However undignified, the king gulps down every meal whole.
Its digestive tract is like a long straight tube. Blunt teeth puncture the food and the venom’s enzymes start the digestive process. From the long stomach, food travels through the small intestine, the large intestine, and then out the cloaca.
The King's Domain
The king cobra’s natural habitats include the cool undergrowth of rain forests. It often stays near streams, where the temperature and humidity are relatively constant. It spends almost a fourth of its time up in trees or bushes, but also likes plains and mangrove swamps.
As deforestation causes the king’s habitat to shrink, it can find itself in enemy territory—the human realm of tea estates and villages.
The king’s natural realm stretches from India eastward to Vietnam, southern China, and the Philippines, and southeast through Malaysia and Indonesia. Yet throughout its vast range the king cobra is not common anywhere, and in India it has become very rare due to the habitat loss.
Despite its aggressive reputation, the king cobra is actually much more cautious than many smaller snakes. The king only attacks people when it is cornered, in self defense or to protect its eggs.
Throughout its entire range from India to Indonesia, the king causes fewer than five human deaths a year—about one-fifth as many as caused by rattlers in North America.
The Dissent
Every monarch must deal with dissent, specially when they are young. 
Rebels against the king cobra’s reign come in all shapes and sizes, including our own. The Wild boar and mongoose are notorious thieves of king cobra eggs. Hatchling cobras are susceptible to army ants, giant centipedes, civet cats, and more mongooses. Leeches are pesky opportunists and abuse king and commoner alike. On king cobras, they fasten onto the gaps between scales.
Humans are the king cobra’s most dangerous insurgents. Deforestation, often due to growing populations and agriculture, is shrinking the king’s native habitat throughout its range. In southern India, people kill a dozen or more king cobras each year when the snakes stray into tea estates and villages.
King cobras are the only snakes to make nests. These consist of
mounds of leaves (preferably bamboo) that the queen whips together with her body coils. It’s a two-story affair: The eggs are laid in a bottom chamber and the queen lies coiled in the upper layer. About two months after mating, the queen lays a clutch of 20-40 eggs. She will guard these on the nest for about two more months. During this time, she’s
prepared to fend off any intruders, though she will generally shy away from humans. Just before the babies emerge, the mother leaves. After her two-month fast, she has a powerful appetite. Experts think she may leave to avoid the
temptation of eating her own young. When they hatch, the brightly-marked hatchlings are good to go.About 35 centimetres long and as thick as your little finger, they emerge self-sufficient. Their venom is just as potent as an adult king cobra’s. Once the young kings undergo their first moulting at seven to ten days old, they realize that the rigours of birth have left them famished—and another creature discovers the perils of living in the realm of the king cobra.
The Emperor
The photo on the side is that of a King cobra seized from Goa, India by Mr. Krishna Ghule.
He is considered as a Master in Snake Handling. The King Cobra on the image weighed 20 Kg, and was 3.73 m long! How I wish I had the courage to even stand near and witness a large snake like that being handled!
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