King cobra nest sighted(The Statesman)

KENDRAPARA, July 30: Wildlife researchers have spotted the nest of a king cobra along the swampy patches of Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary. The sighting of nest of these reptile species is first of its kind within the internationally-acclaimed Ramsar wetland site, according to official sources.
Though venomous king cobras abound in the mangrove forest region. Never before, cobras’ nest had been sighted, said Mr. Ajay Kumar Jena, divisional forest officer, Rajnagar mangrove forest division.“It’s a chance discovery”, described Mr. Jena. The forest protection staff while on duty had stumbled upon a 12-foot-long female king cobra in dense mangrove cover. The reptile was on vigil protecting the nest from natural predators. Later after having received the good news, the forest staffs were asked to keep watch on the nest and ensure its safety. Yesterday, babies emerged from the nest. n SNS

The snake man of India

Romulus Whitaker talks about his mission to get the King Cobra recognised as the king of the jungle.

HE IS more at home with snakes and crocodiles than fellow human beings. He caught his first snake when he was just five and studying in Kodaikanal. He has many films on reptiles and other crawlers to his credit. He is one of the better-known environmentalists in the country. He is Romulus Whitaker, the snake man of India.

In Thiruvananthapuram to promote an exhibition on snakes, Whitaker said his new mission was to make the King Cobra the symbol of Western Ghats just as the Tiger was the symbol of conservation in India.

"I caught my first snake when I was five and ever since I have been smitten by them," Whitaker recounts.

His passion for reptiles took him to Wyoming University in the United States to do a course in Wildlife Management. In 1963, he joined as an assistant manager with the Miami Serpentarium, Florida, and in 1967, he returned to India as manager of the Venom Production Laboratory in Mumbai. In India, he continued to actively pursue his interest in snakes.

Whitaker's 53-minute-long film, `King Cobra', was awarded the Emmy Award for Outstanding News and Documentary Programme Achievement in 1998. The film was shot extensively in the rainforests of Kerala and took two years of intensive research.

Although he was bitten thrice by snakes ("It was quite bad", he says), Whitaker does not hold it against them. "I am more scared of human beings than snakes," he says.

Other than the `King Cobra', `Rat Wars', `Spunky Monkey', `Croc Man' and `Thunder Dragons' are the other documentaries he has shot for various channels.

He is a member of many important committees connected with wildlife and environment such as the Palni Conservative Council and Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, U.S. Whitaker has won awards and acclaim such as the Rolex Award for Enterprise (Switzerland) and the Order of the Golden Ark (Netherlands) for his work. He has travelled extensively. Recently, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, a well-known conservationist, consulted with him on why the crocodiles in Bhutan were not breeding. "I found that there was no male and told the King to get a couple of males for the company of the female crocs."

Although Whitaker is for harvesting crocs for their skin, the environmental laws of the country are against it. "The people who protect the crocs should have some stake in it," he says.

Today, Whitaker is the vice-chairman of Crocodile Specialist Group IUCN/Species Survival Commission and lives in Chegalpatu near Chennai.

"I want the King Cobra to be recognised as the real king of the jungle," he says. And that is a tough task in this country where the King Cobra has to compete with another living being that is bent on destroying its habitat - Man.

King Cobra - the snake that would be King

Its size, deadliness, intelligence and ability to rear up and look a human straight in the eye have earned it a name that is more like a title: the King Cobra. The world's longest venomous snake, with a bite potent enough to kill an elephant. And no one knows that better than Romulus Whitaker, the Founder-Director of the Madras Snake Park who has spent most of his life in India wandering around the jungles of Western Ghats, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in his quest for King Cobras.

Whitaker's Emmy award winning film on the real King of the Jungle explores the relationship between the charismatic cobra and creatures such as the forest tortoise, vine snakes, cow elephants, and giant squirrels. The film shot mainly in the rainforests of Kerala is a result of two years of intensive research in which Whitaker and his team travelled the length and breadth of Western Ghats, Orissa and contacted every zoo that breeds the King Cobra to know its habits.

" We also set up a breeding programme in captivity to get the best shots of the female cobra laying eggs and then hatching them," says Whitaker. But the filming wasn't without its perils. The team's cameraman escaped narrowly when the King Cobra struck him on the head when he was trying to get a close shot of the snake without using the remote. Even Whitaker had a miraculous escape. When they were filming a fight between two King Cobras Whitaker got too close and one of the cobras pounced upon his back and hit him on his behind. " Luckily," says Whitaker, " It missed biting me. Though the venom of the King Cobra is less toxic than the common cobra, its massive glands have been known to yield over seven ccs of venom in a single extraction which is enough to wipe out an elephant."

One of the most exciting phases of the production came when the cameraman captured a long footage of a male and female cobra mating. " It was a unique sight to watch the male courting the female," says Whitaker. The King Cobra has a number of unique characteristics not found in any other snake. It has a higher level of intelligence, awareness and alertness as compared to other animals. The male is very conscious about his territory. If another snake ventures into his territory, he chases the intruder out.

The female cobra is the only snake that makes a nest and her presence on the pile of leaves over the eggs deters predators like wildboar, monitor lizards and the deadly mongoose. The King Cobra often feeds on other snakes. Its double hinged jaw and elastic throat permits it to consume prey much larger than itself. It is the largest venomous snake in the world, sometimes growing to over five meters in length.

Whitaker is the world's best known authority on King Cobra. A naturalised Indian, his association with country began in 1951 as a 7-year-old child. Following his schooling at Kodaikanal, he did a course on Wildlife Management in Wyoming, USA. In 1963, he joined as an Assistant Manager with Miami Serpentarium, Florida and in 1967 he returned to India as manager of the Venom Production Laboratory in Mumbai. In India, he has continued to actively pursue his pet passion - snakes!

Whitaker has produced many stunning documentary films including The King Cobra, Rat Wars, Spunky Monkey, Croc Man and Thunder Dragons. King Cobra, was awarded the Emmy Award for Outstanding News and Documentary Programme Achievement in 1998.

Snakes have been a passion with him and he says, " My mother used to tell me jokingly that I started collecting snakes even before I started to walk. But seriously I caught my first snake when I was a student at Kodaikanal." And from then on its been a long crawly journey into the realm of the slithering creatures which has made Whitaker the most celebrated snake man of the world.

King, the Snake

The King Cobra is the largest venomous snake. The solitary King Cobra lives in rainforests, tropical deciduous forests, tropical scrub forests, and tropical grasslands of India, southern China, and southeast Asia. Several of people die from the bite of the King Cobra each year. A King Cobra can even kill an elephant.The King Cobra can slither on land, climb on trees, and swim on water; it often lives near water. It has a life span of about 20 years.The Hood: When the King Cobra is threatened or on the attack, it will hiss, rear up, and flatten its neck ribs into a hood. There are false eyespots on the hood, which can scare some predators.Anatomy: King Cobras have been found up to 18 feet (5.5 m) long, but average about 13 ft (4 m) long. Its hollow fangs are up to 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) long. Poison is forced through the fangs when the cobra bites. The scaly skin glistens but is dry to the touch. Adults are yellow, green, brown, or black; the throat is light yellow or cream-colored. Juveniles are black with yellow or white bars crossing the body. The King Cobra smells using its forked tongue. Although it is deaf to sounds, it can feel vibrations (like footsteps).Like all snakes, King Cobras are cold-blooded; they are the same temperature as the environment. They continue to grow all their lives, getting bigger and bigger each year.Hunting and Diet: The King Cobra is a carnivore (meat-eater). King Cobras are venomous; one bite can paralyze and kill their prey within minutes. The victim dies from suffocation, as the lungs and heart stop.Like all snakes, they swallow the prey whole, head first. The top and bottom jaws are attached to each other with stretchy ligaments, which let the snake swallow animals wider that itself. Snakes can't chew their prey; food is digested by very strong acids in the snake's stomach.The King Cobra eats mostly cold-blooded animals, including snakes (like the rat snake) and lizards. After swallowing a large animal (which can take hours), the King Cobra can go without food for months.Reproduction: Female King Cobras build a leafy nest early in spring; they lay up to 20 to 50 white, leathery eggs, which have an incubation period of 60 to 70 days. Nesting females are very dangerous.Classification: Class Reptilia (reptiles), Order Squamata (lizards and snakes), Suborder Serpentes, Family Elapidae, Genus Ophiophagus, Species hannah.

Some special characters of "THE KING" and its Venom

It has a head as big as a man’s hand and can stand tall enough to look you straight in the eye.
Its venom can stun your nervous system and stop your breathing.

The king cobra’s deadly fangs are almost half an inch (8-10 millimeters) long. Because they are fixed to the upper jaw, they have to be short. If they were longer, the king might bite the floor of its mouth and commit royal suicide.
Angled back into the snake’s mouth, the fangs help push the prey on its path to the stomach.

A regal bite delivers venom from glands attached to the fangs. The flexing of a small muscle forces the venom through the hollow fangs into the victim.
Within minutes, neurotoxins stun the prey’s nervous system, especially the impulses for breathing. Other toxins start digesting the paralyzed victim.

Drop for drop, a king cobra’s venom is actually less lethal than a common cobra’s. The king more than makes up for it by delivering more venom per bite—as much as .2 fluid ounces (7 milliliters) of liquid.
That’s enough to kill an elephant, or 20 people.

The Indian system of Ayurvedic medicine has tested various cobra venoms for use in treating diseases such as tuberculosis and cholera.
In the United States, the study of cobra venom has yielded pain relievers such as Cobroxin, used to block nerve transmission and Nyloxin, used for severe arthritis pain.
The antidote arrives on horseback... or rather, via horse neck. A small, nonlethal dose of venom “milked” from the fangs of a live king cobra is injected into a healthy horse. Once the horse’s body has developed antibodies to the venom, blood is removed from the jugular vein. It’s then mixed with an anticoagulant and a preservative, and the antibodies are separated and stored as antivenin.

Longest Venomous Snake [ANIMAL]

The King cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), also called the hamadryad, has an average length of 12-15 ft. An 18-ft.-2-in.-long specimen captured near Fort Dickson, Negri Sembilan (now Malaysia), in April 1937, later grew to 18 ft. 9 in. in London Zoo, England.


If you get bit by a King cobra you have about 15 minutes to live, luckily though, King cobras are shy and prefer to avoid people when possible.

King cobra settles into new home

snake with sufficient venom to kill 12 men with a single bite is settling in at London Zoo.
The king cobra, now 9ft (3m) long, will be able to rear to the height of an adult human once fully grown.
It is the first time in more than 30 years the attraction in Regent's Park, central London, has had this species on display to the public.
If cornered the snake will spread a hood and rear up to one third of its length, which can be up to 16ft (5m).
Richard Gibson, Curator of Herpetology, said: "She's a fantastic addition to our unique collection of reptiles.
"While king cobras are not yet endangered they are facing a major threat through the loss of their habitat and we hope to forge links with field biologists researching this unique snake in the wild."
King cobras are carnivorous and mainly eat other snakes.
They inhabit Asian rainforests from India to Indonesia and the Philippines where they live in clearings or on the edge of forests.