The King Cobra is one of my favourite snakes in the world, and so I decided that I wanted to read up more about them, well that and cause I was a little bored.. Anyways, I just wanted to write some facts out about them that I learned, and hope someone who happens by, bored or otherwise, enjoys this.
Did you know:
[LIST][*]The king cobra is one of the worlds longest venomous snakes? Having a recorded length of 18.5 ft long
- It is one of the most feared and dangerous snakes in all of Asia.
- The average cobra ranges between 12-13 ft long, and can weigh up to 13lbs. (Is it just me, or does that not seem to be all that much??) Despite being so big, they are an extremely fast and agile snake.
- The average lifespan of a king cobra is 20 years.
- Their latin or genus name is Ophiophagus hannah. Ophiophagus meaning "snake-eater." That's right, this baby likes to eat all your pretty little other snakes, from ratsnakes to smaller pythons.. And that's just for breakfast. For lunch, they like to enjoy a variety of other venomous snakes, including kraits, cobra's and the smaller members of it's own species. (I guess that makes this beautiful snake a cannibal, uh ohhh.. can you say taboo?? lmao)
- Obviously, as I am writing this in the "Venomous Forums", and even if I wasn't I would sure as hell hope you know that King Cobra's can KILL you with a bite.
With fangs half an inch long, they will force venom into a wound attacking the central nervous system causing severe pain, blurred vision, vertigo (a feeling of motion while stationary), drowsiness and eventually paralysis. As the cardiovascular system starts to fail, the victim will fall into a coma, and eventually die from respiratory failure (XD Scary... but I could thing of at least a 1000 worst ways to die.)
Now my absolute favourite fact about the king cobra that you probably never would have guessed.
- Did you know that the King Cobra is actually a very maternal snake?
She'll make a nest by gathering leaves and other debris, forming a mound which will act as the incubator, before she lays her eggs. She will lay somewhere between 20-40 eggs, and will stay with them until they hatch, protecting them by rearing up when there are predators close by.
When her eggs start to hatch, her instincts tell her to leave the nest in order to find prey to eat, which will keep her from eating her babies.
Love, an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.
If that isn't love I don't know what is. I don't care if you label it instinct or not, the fact that they even have the instinct to search for prey JUST so they won't eat their babies has to tell you something. If some inner part of her didn't have affection for her babies, her instincts would never tell her to leave in search of food, when she could easily eat her children.
The King Cobra
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