The adult is brown or olive above with scales dark-edged especially on tail and posterior body with traces of whitish crossbars.
The throat is orange-yellow with irregular blackish markings, and the belly greyish brown. The young, at least up to about 60 cm TL (total length), is dark-brown or black above with many white or yellow crossbars that are narrow and chevron-shaped with forward-pointing apices. The head is black above with four white cross-bars. The head and body are white below, with the ventrals and subcaudals bordered with black. The dorsal scales are in 15 rows.
The term ‘cobra’ is abbreviated from the Portuguese ‘cobra de capello’, which means ‘snake with hood’. Hence, ‘cobra’ refers to any species within the family Elapidae that can produce a hood when threatened.
Native to South and Southeast Asia, the king cobra is the world’s longest venomous snake, capable of growing up to 5.49– 5.79 m.
Its established global distribution includes the following 15 countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China (mainland as well as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), India, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
King cobra (Ophiophagus hannah)
