Status
Vulnerable
Habitat
Rainforest, bamboo thicket, plantation edge
Range
India · Asia
Group
Reptiles
The only snake in the world that builds a nest.
A female king cobra gathers leaf litter with her coils, builds a mound nest, and guards it for around three months. No other snake does this. She leaves shortly before the eggs hatch, which is generally read as removing the risk that she eats them.
The genus name means 'snake-eater'. Its diet is overwhelmingly other snakes, including other cobras and pythons, which places it structurally at the top of a food chain made largely of its own relatives.
Where we photograph it
The open shelf
More frames of the king cobra
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