King cobra
Amazing fact
A female king cobra piles leaves and branches into a nest and guards her eggs.
Smithsonian's National Zoo
No sign-up needed. You can save notes on this device.
An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
A female king cobra piles leaves and branches into a nest and guards her eggs.
THE REAL WORLD
The real King cobra
- Scientific name
- Ophiophagus hannah
- Japanese name
- キングコブラ
- Group
- Amphibians and reptiles
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Elapidae
- Genus
- Ophiophagus
A large venomous snake of Asia. It likes places such as the banks of streams in forests.
When it threatens an enemy, it flattens and spreads its neck into a hood. Its hiss is a low sound, like a dog's growl.
It mostly eats other snakes. It is called the king cobra because it can catch and eat cobras.
How the King cobra lives
It is active by day and also spends time in trees or bushes. Males wrestle and try to push each other’s head to the ground. The eggs develop in the nest through spring and summer and hatch in autumn.
Smithsonian's National ZooBasic data
- Size
- up to 5.4 m
- Lifespan
- about 20 years in the wild
- Active
- By day (diurnal)
- Diet
- Cold-blooded animals, particularly other snakes
- Range
- Southeast Asia, northern India, southern China, the Malay Peninsula, western Indonesia and the Philippines
Where the King cobra has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- キングコブラ
- 简体中文
- 眼镜王蛇
- 繁體中文
- 眼鏡王蛇
- 한국어
- 킹코브라
- Español
- Cobra real
- Français
- Cobra royal
- Deutsch
- Königskobra
- Português (Brasil)
- Cobra-real
- Italiano
- Cobra reale
- हिन्दी
- नागराज
- العربية
- ملك الكوبرا
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Ular lanang
- Tiếng Việt
- Rắn hổ mang chúa
- Русский
- Королевская кобра
- Türkçe
- Kral kobra
- ไทย
- งูจงอาง
- বাংলা
- শঙ্খচূড়
- اردو
- کنگ کوبرا
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- Smithsonian's National Zoo — King cobraChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
Report a mistakeRELATIVES
Others in Elapidae
MORE TO MEET
