King Cobra

golok

golok

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King Cobras are very much of the Malaysian wildlife. I have come across them before, when they are dead, that is.

Recently, somebody caught a live one when it slithered into somebody's kitchen.

I just want to know what can I do NOT to make it angry if I accidentally stumble across one. King Cobra when fully grown is about 10 feet long. When it stands up, so to speak, it meets you eye-to-eye.

If you have not fainted by then, it can be quite a frightful sight.

How do you live to tell the tale when you meet one such as this? How precautions do you take?
 
They are too small to eat you. But they do have enough poison to do you in.

If you end up staring a King Cobra down, then you're in luck - it hasn't bitten you yet. Then you can start getting some distance between you and the snake.

The snake usually isn't interested in humans. We are not part of their diet. However, if it made a nest under your sink. Then it will attack you to defend it's lair.

Snakes are deaf, so they respond to movement. If you stumble across a snake. Don't move and it shouldn't have a reason to strike. Stay still and wait for the snake to calm down. After it calms down, move away really, really slowly.

If the snake is in your home, feed it your neighbor's cat and dispose of the snake when it takes a nap.
:D
 
Originally posted by golok

King Cobras are very much of the Malaysian wildlife. I have come across them before, when they are dead, that is.

Recently, somebody caught a live one when it slithered into somebody's kitchen.

I just want to know what can I do NOT to make it angry if I accidentally stumble across one. King Cobra when fully grown is about 10 feet long. When it stands up, so to speak, it meets you eye-to-eye.

If you have not fainted by then, it can be quite a frightful sight.

How do you live to tell the tale when you meet one such as this? How precautions do you take?
Click to expand...

Looks like lunch to me too.
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Sundsval's advise is good. Pay him attention.

If it's a female and you're within 10 or so meters of her nest, it's too late, she's already mad (Hmmmm.... much like a certain lady friend of mine). And that goes for other snakes besides cobras. Problem being that with most all poisonous snakes that I've met, they're pretty cocky and assume they have the same right to be there as you do. If I'm not too close I let them have their little delusions. I just casually (hah!) back off.

The problem with that is that they don't always get the message that you are a peace loving individual who means no one any harm. My trusty Ontario machete which never leaves my side in snake country, any kind of snake country, gets used in that case. I figure that there are plenty of snakes in the world and one less won't hurt anything. One swipe right behind the head. Besides, snake IS tasty!

Besides keeping the machete close at all times, for precautions I never use my bare hands to move stuff around on the ground (the Ontario works nicely for flipping ground cover and poking around and under stuff) and I never flop to rest without taking a quick look around. Also when on trail, keeping your head on a swivel including looking down as well as up and around , is always a good survival tip.

My favorite snake recipe is simply to roast them on a spit over an open fire. But they make a tasty fricassee too, if you have some butter, flour and milk.

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pil sung - 'Crow
 
Nice picture. I think they are beautiful animals. I watched handlers working with a King Cobra at the Red Cross center in Bangkok. If you are really concerned about these animals I would suggest chatting with a professional handler for awhile to learn their habits and limitations. I was told at the demonstration that cobras strike downward -- so if you mentally complete an arc from the height of the head to the ground you can get a rough idea of their strike range. I would mentally double this distance just to be safe. So if a King Cobra confronts you hood up 10 feet away (which won't seem far under the circumstances) you will know that you are out of its striking range and can calmly backup and get away. I think the key to not panic is to gain understanding. If you are in striking range watch closely and back up slowly (don't trip!). It will only get one shot and if you dodge it -- keep moving!

I think it would be a treat to encounter a King Cobra in the wild. I spent a little bit of time in the Taman Negara jungle in Malaysia but didn't see any cobras. Lots of large monitor lizards though and some tiger tracks.

-- Dizos
 
Standing still doesn't work on all snakes. It will get you bit if you're dealing with many of the pit vipers.

Phil
 
Remember, you are most likely quicker than that snake. Smarter too. If you remember that and don't panick, it IS lunch. We've all seen the people that are comfortable around these snakes handle them without harm.

Snakes do not have enough brain to get "angry".
 
A word of caution, regarding King Cobras.

Cobras and other elapids are generally very nervous snakes. While cobras are generally not as fast as most of the vipers, King Cobras are every bit as fast and aggressive. In addition, King Cobras WILL advance on human targets if they feel threatened. It is said that they have a disposition to match their name.

I hazard to guess that if it decides to strike (as opposed to feint) and you are within range, it will be damn quick. In addition, a female King will not hesitate to attack anything approaching her nest. (King Cobras are the only snakes that nest to lay eggs)

With regards to snakes not having enough brain to get "angry" I must disagree. King Cobras in particular exhibit intelligence. They avoid other venomous snakes, for fear of being bitten, and feed entirely on harmless species (the easy kill). They appear to be much more intelligent than other cobras. Underestimating this could prove fatal.

Some stats :

King Cobra can see a moving person 330ft away.
King Cobras DO hear. Sound is transferred from skin through jaw muscle to reverberate off of quadrate bone next to the ear bone. Not having an external ear doesn't particularly hinder hearing ability.
A King Cobra's hiss sounds more like a dog's growl (intimidating for sure)
Venom can kill an elephant.

Moral : Always carry a mongoose. :D

From academia, not experience.

Regards,

Shaun.
 
All kidding aside. King Cobra is not to be taken lightly. Handle as if it were a loaded gun pointed toward you.

My info is also general info from acadamia, not from experience.

If I were actually to be confronteded by such a snake I would immediately use whatever pole arm was available - that was light enough to manuever. Initially to block the path of any strike. Then to drive the beast out. (I know how to use a pole very quickly and accurately, so that helps.)

I prefer the flaming broom and machete approach myself. Couple of Mongooses as house pets would be merited if snakes like these are abound.

All snakes will attack if you are too close to their "nest". But generally speaking, these snakes are not interested in eating you. You are too big.

Large constrictors would look at humans as food.
 
Make sure they don't climb up your pole arm. That's why I like the flaming broom idea. LOL
 
If they climb on, you fling em across the room. Or bounce them off the ceiling so that you can keep track of them.

The toe wacking techniques work well with snakes.
 
:D It costs $200 in HK to eat one of them suckers.:D

2001 was the Chinese Year of the Snake. Many a snake meet their end that first month.
 
A formidable snake, sure. But it's just a snake.

A man is quicker, smarter, and much deadlier.

Nothing found on a restaurant's menu scares me much.

It kinda proves the critter's relative position on the food chain.

Emotion in a snake is hard to swallow. I suppose it's possible...with anger comes meanness, with meanness comes evil intent. Is this or any animal evil?

Only thing this animal's brain does is to keep it going long enough to make new snakes. The purpose of the snake is evident but not fully revealed.
 
I completely agree with you about the food chain. Humans are definitely on top.

Generally speaking snakes are rodent eaters and serve to keep that population down.

This particular snakes job is to keep the snake population down. This snake eats other snakes.

Good, evil? I don't think that applies here. It's more like hungry, not hungry.
 
Adult King Cobras are the world's largest lving venomous serpents, growing up to twenty feet long. I saw a near mature adult coiled in the Philadelphia Zoo's reptile house in the mid nineties and this snake seemed almost as thick around as a well fed constrictor! I think that the Black Mamba (up to a skinny fourteen or so feet) is the number two longest toxic snake. Unsure of number three - possibly a taipan?

Then you have shorter but very thick bodied beauties like the Gaboon Viper, quite torpid but with exceptionally long fangs.

Jeff
 
You all can say what you want...I don't want to see a 10'+ king cobra up close unless I have a shotgun pointed at it.
 
If I were to be bitten by a king cobra I could die from envenomation. If I were to not be bitten by one because I was faster than it I would die of suprise and amazement.

As to anger in any animal, the issue is probably in attemoting to apply human labels of emotion to behaviors. I cannot say if they are "angry" but anyone witnessing a dog fight, cock fight, or bear attack may well match that behavior to that emotional label. Cottonmouths spring to mind as a snake well known for truculence and ill temper.

i very much enjoyed a trip to a herpetarium in Sao Paolo Brazil that had numerous venemous snakes. The neatest displays were large outdoor pits surrounded by concrete walls about 3 and a half feet high literally crawling with snakes. You would'nt see anything like it in the States where our two-legged snakes would never allow it, but I guess Brazil does'nt have the overpopulation of liability lawyers we do ;)

bill
 
In a book by Carl Sagan called "Dragons of Eden", Sagan traces the evolution of the human brain. During the evolutionary process features were added to the brain, but the original brain functions remained. In fact, the brain stem of a human looks very similar to the brain of a fish, add a couple of blobs and you have the brain of a reptile, add another couple of blobs on top of that and you have the brain of a mammal, finally add a bunch of gray matter and you have the human brain. The emotional aspects of the brain associated with happiness, love, anger and sadness are contained within the blobs that were added when we evolved from reptiles to mammals (think of a dog blissing out when you come home). The initial reptillian aspect of our brain, according to this book, controls our basic territorial, fight and flight instincts. The feelings associated with being territorial are complex and ruthless.

-- Dizos
 
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