Animal · India, Thailand, Vietnam
King cobra
Ophiophagus hannah — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The king cobra is the world's longest venomous snake, capable of growing up to 5.5 metres. It lives in forests across South and Southeast Asia, mostly hunting other snakes.
Picture credit: Rushenb (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the king cobra live?
Home: Forests of South and Southeast Asia.
In the wild you find it in: India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, China.
Conservation status from the IUCN: vulnerable.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures 3–4 m long. It weighs about 6 kilograms. On the menu: meat.
The story behind it
Despite its name and fearsome reputation, a king cobra's main prey is other snakes, including venomous species, and it can even eat pythons far longer than itself by swallowing them whole thanks to its extremely flexible jaw. When threatened, it raises the front third of its body off the ground, spreads a narrow hood and can look a person in the eye while standing tall, all while hissing with a deep, distinctive growl unlike other cobras. A single bite delivers enough venom to potentially kill an elephant, though king cobras generally avoid humans and prefer to escape rather than attack. Remarkably, female king cobras are the only cobras known to build a nest, gathering leaves into a mound to protect their eggs and guarding it fiercely until the young hatch. Habitat loss across Asia has caused numbers to decline, and the species is now vulnerable.
Find it on the globe
King cobra is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
What do king cobras eat?
King cobras mainly eat other snakes, including venomous species and even large pythons, which they can swallow whole. This diet of snakes is what gives the king cobra its scientific name, which means 'snake-eater'.
Do king cobras build nests?
Yes, female king cobras are the only cobra species known to build a nest. She gathers leaves into a mound to lay her eggs in and guards it closely until the young hatch, then leaves before they emerge.
How dangerous is a king cobra's venom?
A king cobra's bite delivers a large amount of venom that attacks the nervous system and could potentially kill an elephant. Fortunately, king cobras are shy and usually try to flee from humans rather than attack.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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