# King Cobra - Ophiohagus hannah



## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

The king cobra is one of the most well know species of venomous snake in the world, and naturally is on the top of any Asian herpers list as a 'must see' animal. Sadly these guys arent as easy to find in the wild as one would hope, and although ive spent many hours searching, im yet to come across one in the wild. They have an absolutely huge range, strectching from India, through nepal, bangladesh, burma (myanmar), china and then south through pretty much the rest of south-east asia. Their colouration and size vary massively within this range, specimens from china are heavily banded, and as you move south this banding starts to fade and then disappears when you reach malaysia.
Ive have had the opportunity to work with some animals on my travels, and fingers crossed my next trip will yeild an 18ft specimen :2thumb: 

The first animal is from Southern Thailand. The park where this animal was kept claimed this King was 17ft, "the largest in captivity in thailand", and although i cant take away the fact that this animal was huge, i doubt it was 17ft in length (more like a chunky 14/15ft).











The next animal was caught in central peninsular Malaysia (not sure which state), and was being housed in a reptile exporters facility around 45 minutes from Kuala lumpur. Please note the malayan racer was dead before being fed to the king cobra, we found it on the road on the way to the facility.










Next is a stunning golden Malaysian king cobra which was around 9ft. I think this golden phase of Malaysian kings is definately one of the more attractive colourations (although it doesnt beat chinese bandeds!). This animal was just coming out of shed and when we visited the park a few months later it looked even better.










A head shot of the animal above










Finally a 12ft king, again on Langkawi island. This animal was fresh from the wild, caught only a couple of days before, and we were the first to work with it since its capture. The encounter was 'sporty' to say the least. For anyone who has visited Langkawi, this animal was found around Telega Tujuh.










Sadly these guys arent easy to keep in captivity as they feed almost exclusively on snakes (hence the name ophiophagus). Suprisingly even out in asia, the local herpers often struggle to keep these snakes alive, even with a regular supply of feeder snakes. This is most likely down to stress as the animals are not always kept in 'ideal' conditions'.


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## Declan123 (Dec 29, 2007)

stunning mate, these are my in my top 5


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## jaysnakeman (May 10, 2006)

nice pics


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## Scales and Fangs (Mar 22, 2007)

Great pics mate and a fantastic read.


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## Fangio (Jun 2, 2007)

Agreed, some great pics and a great read! Thanks for posting this and I wish you luck in finding a biggie in the wild. I didn't know they varied so much but to be fair what I know about king cobras you could write on the back of a stamp:lol2:


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## Scales and Fangs (Mar 22, 2007)

I love kings they are stunning but as mentioned, a pain in the but to keep in captivity.


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## SNAKEWISPERA (Aug 27, 2007)

Cool photos, And nice story,


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## fatratsandcheesekk (May 18, 2008)

nice pics


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

One thing i forgot to add in the first post was that i was suprised to find just how arboreal King cobras are as ive always regarded them as a terrestrial species. We went out on one hunt with a malaysian friend who said to keep an eye out in trees over-hanging the stream we were searching along, as even big kings are sometimes found 6-8ft off the ground. The ones at the park also spent much of their time up in the trees in the centre of their enclosure, maybe this makes them feel more secure. 
This is not to say they are completely arboreal, and i would still generally class them as a terrestrial species, but they certainly spend a fair amount of time off the ground. It would be interesting to find out if this behaviour various amongst populations and geographical location.


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## glidergirl (Nov 27, 2006)

Azemiops said:


> Sadly these guys arent easy to keep in captivity as they feed almost exclusively on snakes (hence the name ophiophagus). Suprisingly even out in asia, the local herpers often struggle to keep these snakes alive, even with a regular supply of feeder snakes. This is most likely down to stress as the animals are not always kept in 'ideal' conditions'.


Have to disagree slightly there, we had 5 Kings which we got on to rodents, it wasn't THAT hard in all honesty, we NEVER once had to resort to feeding live rodents or snakes despite the lies of a jealous nobody (no one on here). In fact we have one at the mo which we're currently 'sorting out' for a zoo. There are quite a few Kings in the UK now and obviously I can't speak for them all but I know there are at least 5 rodent eaters out there.


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

With all due respect i cant see how you can disagree with my comment, i think its fair to say king cobras are not easy to keep in captivity due to their feeding habits. I congratulate your other half on getting 5 kings to eat rodents, but this is certainly an exception rather than the rule. Rich has obviously succeeded where the vast majority of other keepers have failed, otherwise surely rodent feeding kings would be readily available.


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## SiUK (Feb 15, 2007)

I have heard viperkeeper say hes switched young kings to rodents.


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## glidergirl (Nov 27, 2006)

Azemiops said:


> With all due respect i cant see how you can disagree with my comment, i think its fair to say king cobras are not easy to keep in captivity due to their feeding habits. I congratulate your other half on getting 5 kings to eat rodents, but this is certainly an exception rather than the rule. Rich has obviously succeeded where the vast majority of other keepers have failed, otherwise surely rodent feeding kings would be readily available.


Well, I did say disagree slightly :lol2:. Cali Kings are known for being snake eaters yet they're very popular snakes in the pet industry. KC's are not readily available as they're only JUST becoming 'easy' to get a hold of, when we had our first Kings there was hardly any (that we knew of) in the UK, now more are starting to come through, we bought a young CB King earlier this year which we decided to sell to a 'friend'.


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## Declan123 (Dec 29, 2007)

Ive seen the Kings youve kept Marie, and all of them seemed to be in great health.... ive heard as long as you force/assist feed when there smaller... they will be fine


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## glidergirl (Nov 27, 2006)

They were all adults when we got them Dec, I honestly can't remember Rich ever having to assist/force or tube feed any of them, well I know for a fact he never tube fed, I'll have to check with him if he assisted, but I'm pretty certain that wasn't necessary. The less stress on them the better.


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

Captive bred generations of king snakes are years down the line from wild-caught specimens, they are a far more 'domesticated' species than king cobras, and in the wild I reckon they are far more opportunitic than king cobras, taking a wider variety of different animals (albeit the majority are still snakes). King cobras feed almost exclusively on snakes, and sometimes can be fussy enough to feed only on certain species of snake. Im sure that as more king cobras are imported and bred, and better husbandry techniques are developed, then rodnet feeders will become far more common, but as it stands at the moment i would still class them as a species that is not easy to keep, soley due to their feeding habits. Id like to add that i dont doubt that there a rodent feeding kinds dotted all over the world, and i havent said otherwise in any of my posts.


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## Angi (Nov 12, 2005)

Some great shots there Tom.


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## glidergirl (Nov 27, 2006)

Okey dokey ... just spoke to Rich, the only KC he had to assist was the young CB one as they are very fussy eaters, but he never had to do that with the adults, and he also reminded me that a friend of ours got his Malaysian Gold feeding on rodents the same day he got him home! No assisting, scenting, nothing. 

I know what you're saying about cali kings being more domesticated than KC's, and although I wouldn't say that KC's were hard to keep they DO take time and patience, people are just too keen to 'play' (I use that term very loosely before anyone picks up on it and takes offence ... it's a figure of speech) which stresses the snake out, and despite their imposing size they are shy and sensitive and do stress very easily.


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

Angi said:


> Some great shots there Tom.


Thanks Angi, Kayleigh took the 3rd and the 5th photo so cant take credit for those!


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## clockworkorange (May 30, 2007)

Hello Azemiops,

I m real surprised to see pictures from Langkawi on here! When did you go there?


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

I was last there in febuary this year, youve been there?


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## SamH (Aug 25, 2007)

Wow, great shots. You must have nerves of steel to stand that close to one of them beasts. :2thumb: I'd be kecking my pants


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## clockworkorange (May 30, 2007)

Azemiops said:


> I was last there in febuary this year, youve been there?


I've been in charge of the place in 2005/2006. My collection was exhibited there...:whistling2:

I've put about 80 species on display at that time... how many did you see?


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

ah so your mika? there were probably about half as many different species when we were there. So did you work with Rizal and ashrif?


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## leptophis (May 24, 2007)

well hard or easy, the one thing we can all agree is they are truly awesome, i love em with a passion, and i am sure rich and marie would agree,


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## clockworkorange (May 30, 2007)

Azemiops said:


> ah so your mika? there were probably about half as many different species when we were there. So did you work with Rizal and ashrif?


Yup, i m Mika. Rizal was there but not Ashrif. There was quite a turnover of staff... Not easy to find snake charmers who really care for the animals! If you know that I am Mika, I suppose they've told you about me... Hopefully it was too bad... I made them work hard for the first time in their life I think!
Overall, what was your impression of the park?


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

I actually recognised your name from naturemalaysia! The park was certainly one of the better ones we visited, the majority of the animals were in good condition. Same old typical 'Asian' snake show going on there though. I went out on a few good herping trips with the guys there up gunung raya and telega tujuh, it was cool to know that these guys were just as passionate about reptiles outside of their jobs.


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## clockworkorange (May 30, 2007)

Azemiops said:


> I actually recognised your name from naturemalaysia! The park was certainly one of the better ones we visited, the majority of the animals were in good condition. Same old typical 'Asian' snake show going on there though. I went out on a few good herping trips with the guys there up gunung raya and telega tujuh, it was cool to know that these guys were just as passionate about reptiles outside of their jobs.


Good to know that the park is still in good condition... we ve invested so much effort in developing it! I tried to change the show in my time, but it is difficult to change ppl habits! I ve tried to keep Gunung raya as secret as possible for a long time, in order to preserve the amazing herpetofauna of that area. Unfortunately, I heard recently that the area is heavily collected... what a shame. What did you find in these areas? some popeia i suppose. Any boiga (cynea/cynodon)?


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

we actually had slightly better results around telaga tejuh, it was very dry on the night we went up gunung raya. We found a decent sized retic (of which i have posted on this forum, search retic capture malaysia if you want to see the post), and small reed snake ( Calamaria pavimentata) and a shed load of gecko sp. . We were hoping for some popeia, which is what i was after, we searched all the way along the drains along the side of the road, but sadly nothing!


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## Viperkeeper (Aug 23, 2007)

Azemiops said:


> One thing i forgot to add in the first post was that i was suprised to find just how arboreal King cobras are as ive always regarded them as a terrestrial species. We went out on one hunt with a malaysian friend who said to keep an eye out in trees over-hanging the stream we were searching along, as even big kings are sometimes found 6-8ft off the ground. The ones at the park also spent much of their time up in the trees in the centre of their enclosure, maybe this makes them feel more secure.
> This is not to say they are completely arboreal, and i would still generally class them as a terrestrial species, but they certainly spend a fair amount of time off the ground. It would be interesting to find out if this behaviour various amongst populations and geographical location.


Very nice photo's mate :no1: I wish to offer a different possibility why they are found in trees, simply they can see prey from a further distance and not having to resort to coming across the scent trail of a prey item.

Al


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

Good suggestion, Kings are known to have pretty good eye-sight compared to many species of snake. You generally find diurnal snakes do (Ptyas, ahaetulla, Rhabdophis etc just to name a few), as they have to take in a more complex environment than nocturnal species.


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## cheekysnake (Jun 12, 2008)

wow truly amazing pictures!!!


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## timberwolf (Oct 26, 2007)

thank you, that was a fascinating read.


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## animalsbeebee (May 19, 2008)

*dead feeders*

Many years ago a friend of mine worked at KL zoo,they captive bred and had defrost feeding babies that came to the uk.


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## koganinja (Jun 11, 2006)

i wish i had more space dammit :bash:


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## ferretlad (Mar 6, 2008)

Stunning pics and very interesting post to read.


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

Just thought id add these, heres a couple of pictures that a friend from Thailand emailed me recently of his newly-aquired baby king cobra.



















These sell for 2500 baht, which is around £41.60p.


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## Viper (May 10, 2008)

Awesome snakes !!


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## .snap. (Jun 2, 2008)

i watched a documentry about these last night on channel 1, king cobras can be found 30ft up in the trees which i didnt no and fouund quite amazing 

and nice pics truely amazing :flrt:


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## SamH (Aug 25, 2007)

Azemiops said:


> Just thought id add these, heres a couple of pictures that a friend from Thailand emailed me recently of his newly-aquired baby king cobra.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


£40 for a king cobra!! If only they wern't so deadly lol


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## trueviper (Jan 13, 2008)

This has been one of the most interesting threads I have read on this site since I joined, thankyou to everyone for contributing :no1:

I take my hat off to anyone who can keep Kings in captivity and I had no idea how fussy their feeding requirements could be.


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## chimpy666 (Jan 2, 2007)

wow-weeeeeeeeeeee

I love kings they have that "look" in their eyes, like the cogs are always turning very intelligent and stunning!!


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## mad achmed (Jul 5, 2008)

had 11 footer on defrost and 10 babies all on defrost never had any problems big one had 4 rats at a time and placid as any corn and never missed a feed in all the years i had it . babies went over uk no one told me about any feeding problems with them but that was about 10 years ago


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## The Wanderer (Sep 14, 2007)

Brilliant thread and awesome pics : victory:


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## Azemiops (May 1, 2008)

I just came across this picture in one of my old photo albums, this is one of several 5-7ft Chinese Banded King Cobras a friend imported several years back. Chinese local Kings retain their bands throughout their life, and in my opinion these are by far the prettiest of all the King Cobra localities.


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## Declan123 (Dec 29, 2007)

I agree, Chinese Banded are my Fave of the localities, followed closly by the Malasyian Golds

:flrt::flrt::flrt:

Thanks for sharing


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