King Cobras

Many of you had questions after we shared our decade-long study on King Cobras.

We have created a simple habitat distribution map with visuals to help explain our groundbreaking work in simple terms.

Our research has led to significant taxonomic revisions within the Ophiophagus genus:

1. We have redefined Ophiophagus hannah, limiting it to populations from eastern Pakistan, northern and eastern India, the Andaman Islands, Indo-Burma, Indo-China, and central Thailand.

2. We have revived the name Ophiophagus bungarus (Schlegel, 1837) for populations in the Sunda Shelf area, which includes the Malay Peninsula, Greater Sunda Islands, and parts of the southern Philippines.

3. We have described two new species:

– Ophiophagus kaalinga sp. nov.: Endemic to the Western Ghats of southwestern India.

– Ophiophagus salvatana sp. nov.: Found on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines.

This research is reshaping our understanding of the diversity and distribution of king cobras across Asia. It underscores the importance of continued study and conservation efforts for these magnificent and ecologically significant snakes. Planet Earth.  Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology

This is an older pic making the rounds again and thought it was well worth sharing. I don’t know who took the pic or where, but it shows the aftermath of a king cobra, the world’s longest venomous snake that specializes in eating other snakes, and a reticulated python, the world’s longest snake species. It appears the king had bit the retic, the retic in turn wrapped a few coils and constricted the king. The retic died from the king’s venom and the king died from constriction. What a wild sight to walk up on, glad someone had a camera! Sadly, there is also a lot of trash, which is the case seemingly everywhere these days.  Gator Chris

Death in the trash. Welcome to the Anthropocene.

A good scale pic.