Would You Like to Meet a Cobra
Would You Like to Meet a Cobra
WELL, would you? Most adults may answer no. But not a child. Fear of snakes, including the cobra, is not an instinctive trait in young children or even in animals. Aversion to snakes can be caused by information that is not reliable, exaggerated stories, myths, and misconceptions.
Of course, when we invite you to meet a cobra, we mean at a safe distance! Cobras are highly venomous, and we would not want to go up to one and hold out our hand to stroke it. Nor would the cobra be likely to wait around to greet us; on hearing our approach, it would beat a hasty retreat to a safe hiding place. So let us be satisfied to meet the cobra just by learning some fascinating facts about this interesting creature.
Cobras are reptiles of the suborder Serpentes and the family Elapidae, a name given to venomous snakes with grooved fangs. There are about 12 species of cobras scattered from Australia through the tropics of Asia and Africa to Arabia and the Temperate Zones. By far the most fearsome of the cobras is the king cobra, or hamadryad. With a length of 9 to 18 feet [3 to 5 m], this is the largest poisonous snake in the world. Preferring the dense undergrowth of jungle or swamp, where rainfall is copious, it can be found in southern China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and parts of India. A jet-black tail, bands of color on a greenish-yellow body, which turns to dark olive with age, and groups of small spots on its hood make it look quite beautiful.
Other species of cobra average from three to six feet [1 to 2 m] in length. Indigenous to India and widely distributed there, is the spectacled cobra with unique markings on its hood, which resemble a pair of spectacles. It can be black, dark brown, or yellowish-white with a wide, dark neckband and speckled white and yellow bands on the length of its body. The monocled cobra, found in Sri Lanka as well as in eastern and northeastern India, is lighter with a smaller, more round hood having a single white circle, which gives it its name. In northwest India and in Pakistan, we find a jet-black cobra. Africa has, among others, the ringhals, or the spitting cobra, and the Egyptian cobra. The latter, a dark and narrow-hooded snake, is possibly the asp to which the death of Queen Cleopatra is attributed.
Snakes mate only with their own species, being attracted by a unique musk odor. The cobra shows more family interest than other snakes, male and female often remaining together. The female king cobra is one of the few snakes known to make a nest. She scrapes leaves into a mound about one foot [30 cm] high and deposits 20 to 50 eggs in it. She then coils her body around the mound and remains there, without food, for the almost two months of incubation, the male often staying close too. Other cobras, without preparing a nest, remain near their eggs to protect them.
The baby snakes use an egg tooth, which later falls off, to slit the shell and release themselves. On emerging they are totally independent with fully-formed venom glands and fangs. They flick out their tongues frequently, taste the surroundings, and transfer chemical information to what is called the Jacobson’s organ in the roof of the mouth. This is linked to the sense of smell; the combination of taste and smell helps the snake to track its prey, find a mate, or escape predators.
The young snake grows rapidly and within a short time sheds its outer skin, which has become too tight. This unusual phenomenon is repeated regularly, since the cobra keeps growing throughout its life, which can be over 20 years. For one or two weeks before the molt, the snake becomes lethargic, its skin becomes dull, and its eyes turn milky-blue. Then, suddenly, the eyes clear, and by rubbing its head on stones, the snake splits the old skin at its mouth. Now it literally crawls out of its skin as this peels off inside out, from the transparent cap over the eyes right down to the tail. Now a lively, shiny, new-looking snake is ready to go about its normal activity.
Air temperature greatly affects cobras. As the weather cools, they slow down and even become dormant, only stirring when the temperature rises. Too much heat can kill them. Except for the king cobra, which feeds on snakes, their diet is rats, mice, frogs, lizards, birds, and other small animals. After the prey is caught, an injection of venom immobilizes it. It is ingested whole, as the cobra is not equipped to chew food. The elasticity of the skin and the flexibility of the jaw allow the cobra to swallow an animal that is two or three times larger than its own head. While the mouth is totally blocked by the victim, the snake breathes by drawing the entrance to the windpipe forward beyond the obstruction, just as a swimmer uses a snorkel. Now rows of backward-curving teeth move the prey along into the snake’s body. It retires to a quiet place to digest the food slowly, perhaps not eating