How fast king cobra

Snakes, by human standards, are not model parents: 70 percent of snake species lay eggs, usually in a convenient hole or crevice, and many will abandon their clutches immediately. But the king cobra is an exception. The reptile builds a nest.

First, the female gathers leaves, using her coils as a makeshift rake. After she lays 20 to 30 eggs in the middle, she gathers more leaves, layering them over her clutch the decomposition of the leaves helps keep the eggs warm. The process can take four full days to complete, after which the female curls up on top of the nest for the next two or three months until the eggs begin to hatch. Females don't eat the entire time they're guarding the nest and are unusually aggressive, lashing out at pretty much anything that comes too close—but just before the eggs hatch, they take off.

At birth, baby king cobras are just around a foot long and, with alternating black and whitish-yellow bands running the length of their bodies, are more vibrantly-colored than adults. As they grow up, most snakes gradually lose the bands; when fully grown, king cobras have an almost solidly-brown or olive color scheme though the snakes do have faded yellow bellies.

But not every snake goes solid: In Myanmar, adult kings tend to remain banded. While kings do most of their hunting on solid ground, they can often be found hanging out in trees and will occasionally stalk their prey high above the forest floor. One individual which had been fitted with a tracking device pursued a pit viper up into the canopy of a south Indian forest, climbing more than 65 feet off the ground in the process [ PDF ].

The king cobra—one of the most venomous snakes on the planet—can literally "stand up" and look a full-grown person in the eye. When confronted, they can lift up to a third of its body off the ground and still move forward to attack.

Fortunately, king cobras are shy and will avoid humans whenever possible. It will also flare out its iconic hood and emit a hiss that sounds almost like a growling dog. King cobras can reach 18 feet in length, making them the longest of all venomous snakes. Their venom is not the most potent among venomous snakes, but the amount of neurotoxin they can deliver in a single bite— up to two-tenths of a fluid ounce —is enough to kill 20 people, or even an elephant.

King cobra venom affects the respiratory centers in the brain, causing respiratory arrest and cardiac failure. King cobras live mainly in the rain forests and plains of India, southern China, and Southeast Asia, and their coloring can vary greatly from region to region. They are comfortable in a variety of habitats, including forests, bamboo thickets, mangrove swamps, high-altitude grasslands, and in rivers.

This species feeds mainly on other snakes, venomous and nonvenomous. They will also eat lizards, eggs, and small mammals. They are the only snakes in the world that build nests for their eggs, which they guard ferociously until the hatchlings emerge.

King cobras may be best known as the species of choice for the snake charmers of South Asia. Although cobras can hear, they are actually deaf to ambient noises, sensing ground vibrations instead. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed the king cobra as vulnerable to extinction. These snakes face a variety of threats stemming from human activities.

Heavy deforestation in Southeast Asia has destroyed the habitats of many king cobras, while they are also harvested in large numbers for skin, food, and medicinal purposes. They are also collected for the international pet trade. King cobras are also persecuted by humans who fear their menacing reputation. In Vietnam, the king cobra is a protected species. The Indian government implants microchips in captive king cobras to allow officials to identify any snakes that have newly been taken captive—which has been outlawed—in order to reduce the illegal wildlife trade.

The belly may be uniform in color or ornamented with bars. The throat is light yellow or cream-colored. The juveniles are jet-black, with yellow or white crossbars on the body and tail and four similar crossbars on the head. The king cobra is regarded as a fierce and aggressive snake and its length and size give it an awe inspiring appearance. The king cobra's deadly fangs are almost 0. Because they are fixed to the upper jaw, they have to be short. If they were longer, they would penetrate the floor of its mouth.

Angled back into the snake's mouth, the fangs help push the prey on its path to the stomach. The king cobra's average size is 10 to 12 feet 3 to 3. King cobras live in northern India, east to southern China, including Hong Kong and Hainan; south throughout the Malay Peninsula and east to western Indonesia and the Philippines. They prefer streams in dense or open forest, bamboo thickets, adjacent agricultural areas and dense mangrove swamps.

They often stay near streams, where the temperature and humidity are relatively constant. They spend almost a fourth of their time up in trees or bushes. Its eyesight is better than most snakes'. It's good enough to see a moving person almost feet meters away. The cobra's hiss is much lower than most snakes', more like a dog's growl. It is produced by tiny holes in the trachea and is resonated by the lung.

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. Although the king cobra is undoubtedly a very dangerous snake, it prefers to escape unless it is provoked.

Despite its aggressive reputation, the king cobra is actually much more cautious than many smaller snakes. The cobra 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 cobra causes fewer than five human deaths a year, about one-fifth as many as caused by rattlers in North America. This behavior is not true of nesting females, which may attack without provocation.