Snakes are dangerous yet one of the most intriguing species of the animal kingdom. Looking at them can give a person feeling of both fear and thrill at the same time. Now, think of looking at a snake eating another reptile. Yes, you heard it right. A picture of a king cobra eating another snake has gone viral on the internet. Parveen Kaswan, Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer, shared the rare picture on Twitter. The picture was clicked by IFS officer, where the king cobra is enjoying his meal of a spectacled snake. The tweet has been captioned with some information about the king cobra, revealing its scientific name to be Ophiophagus Hannah. The reptile feeds on lesser mortals.
Ophiophagus hannah. A king cobra eating a spectacled cobra. They feed on lesser mortals. pic.twitter.com/LL8xzQoIww— Parveen Kaswan (@ParveenKaswan) July 19, 2021
The scientific name of this king cobra is; Ophiophagus hannah. “Ophiophagus” is derived from Greek, meaning “snake-eating” and hannah is derived from the name of tree-dwelling nymphs in Greek mythology. So king living true to its name.The only snake which build nests.
— Parveen Kaswan (@ParveenKaswan) July 19, 2021
The IFS officer also explained the Ophiophagus in the name means ‘snake eating’ and Hannah is taken from the names of Greek mythology’s tree dwelling nymphs. Hence, the reptile lives true to its name. It is the only snake that builds nests. Parveen told a fun-fact about the snake, mentioning majority of its diet comprises of other reptiless. Their favourite among all are the rat snakes. They have the capacity to swallow a big rat snake at one go.
King Cobra is in the news for his king like behaviour. Another fun fact majority of their diet consist of other snakes. https://t.co/pILOjvZTGI— Parveen Kaswan (@ParveenKaswan) July 20, 2021
The amazing shot has received 1,821 likes on the social networking site.A user mentioned having one of these experiences at his home, when a king cobra killed and preyed on a rat snake.
I have seen this with my own eyes… King cobra eating a rat snake or something sadly people in my place killed it😟😟😟😟😩😩😩— alwaysHope (@manoj77713) July 20, 2021
Others were curious to know a lot about the wild species and posed many questions to the IFS officer.
Sir does venom of a cobra can kill a cobra???— Arun Kumar (@ArunKYa24850603) July 19, 2021
Will they not eat during nesting period sir? I heard like that. Also they go away from nesting before 1 day of hatching to avoid eating it's youngones.— Padma Priya🇮🇳 (@Padmapriya1212) July 19, 2021
they look damn scary..i once read the news of 15 feet King cobra found in tamilnadu which had a hood of 6 feet..can you imagine cobra standing at level above your head ?— mountains (@mountains689) July 19, 2021
The longest venomous snake of the world is King cobra. Its average length is from 3.18 to 4 metres; however, it can reach up to 5.85 metres of maximum length. Unlike other snakes, they hardly hunt for vertebrates like lizards and rodents.
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