This is one of the most poisonous and extremely dangerous reptiles on Earth. Its venom is highly toxic. There are sixteen types of cobras, and all of them are extremely dangerous.
Habitat
Cobras mainly inhabit the Old World - Africa (almost the entire continent), South and Central Asia (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka). As already mentioned, this is a poisonous snake. Cobra is very thermophilic - it will not live where snow falls and lies in winter. The only exception, perhaps, is the Central Asian cobra. She lives in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. The drier the places, the more preferable they are for these reptiles. Most often they choose bushes, jungles, deserts and semi-deserts. Sometimes they can be seen on the banks of rivers, but most often they avoid wet places. Cobra is also found in mountainous areas, but not higher than 2400 meters above sea level.
Reproduction
These snakes breed once a year. Most often this happens in January-February or in the spring. The fertility of these reptiles largely depends on their species. One female can lay eight to seventy eggs.
Collared cobra is the only one of all speciesgives birth to live babies. She is able to give birth to up to sixty babies. During this period, the king and Indian cobras are very aggressive. They protect their offspring by driving away animals and people from the nest. This behavior is not typical for them and appears only during the breeding season.
Who is the cobra afraid of
Despite the fact that this snake is extremely dangerous, it also has serious enemies. Her young can be eaten by larger reptiles. Adults can be destroyed by meerkats and mongooses. These animals are not immune to the poison of cobras, however, they are able to deftly distract the attention of the snake with their false attacks. They seize the right moment and inflict a fatal bite on the back of her head. A cobra, having met a meerkat or a mongoose on its way, has practically no chance of salvation.
Indian cobra
This variety is most commonly found in Africa and South Asia. Quite often it is called "spectacled cobra". She received this name because of the characteristic pattern on the back of the hood. It consists of two neat rings with a bow. When this venomous cobra defends itself, it raises the front of its body almost vertically, and a hood appears behind its head. The length of the snake is 1 meter eighty centimeters. It feeds mainly on amphibians - rodents and small lizards, and will not refuse bird eggs. It is a very prolific venomous snake. Cobra Naja naja often lays up to 45 eggs! Interestingly, the male also monitors the safety of the masonry.
Spitting Cobra
This is a special subspecies of the Indian cobra. She shoots poison at an enemy located at a distance of up to two meters, and is able to hit a target with a diameter of up to two centimeters. And, I must say, the snake is highly accurate. To kill the victim, getting poison on the body is not enough. The poison will not penetrate the skin, but it is very dangerous if it comes into contact with the mucous membrane. Therefore, the main goal of these snakes is the eyes. With an accurate hit, the victim can completely lose his sight. To avoid this, immediately rinse your eyes with plenty of water.
Egyptian cobra
Distributed in the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. It is also a poisonous snake. Cobra Naja haje grows up to two meters in length. Her hood is much smaller than that of her Indian relative. Among the ancient Egyptians, she symbolized power, and her poisonous bite was used as a means of killing during public executions.
King cobra snake (hamadryad)
Many believe that this is the largest poisonous snake in the world. The length of adults is more than three meters, but cases have been recorded and more impressive - 5.5 meters! This is an erroneous opinion. There is a reptile larger than the king cobra. Against the anaconda, it may seem like just a baby - after all, some individuals of this species reach a length of ten meters!
The Hamadryad is common in India, south of the Himalayas, in South China, the Philippines, the Greater Sunda Islands to Bali, Indochina. Most of the time, the reptile is on the ground, but at the same time it can perfectlycrawl through trees and swim. According to experts, this amazing creature is the king cobra. How can a snake be so massive? Many are surprised by this. Indeed, its size is simply awesome, although it does not look too heavy and massive, like, for example, a python.
Cobra color
It is highly variable due to its vast habitat. Most often - yellowish-green with black rings. On the front of the body, they are narrower and not very clear, towards the tail they become wider and brighter. The color of young individuals is more saturated.
Reproduction
This is one of the few species of snakes whose males, colliding in the same territory, arrange ritual fights, but do not bite each other. Naturally, the winner remains with the female. Mating is preceded by a period of courtship, after which it becomes clear to the male that his “chosen one” is not dangerous for him. About a month later, the female lays eggs. Before this event occurs, a king cobra builds a nest. How can a snake that has no limbs, a beak, cope with this task? It turns out that she is raking dry leaves and branches into a rounded pile with the front part of her body.
The number of eggs is different - from twenty to forty. As a rule, the female guards the masonry, having previously covered it with leaves and placed on its top. But there are cases when the male also takes part in the protection. The incubation period lasts approximately one hundred days. Shortly before the birth of offspring, the female leavesnest for food. After birth, the cubs stay near the nest for about a day. From the moment of their appearance, they are completely independent, from birth they have poison, but in very small quantities, which allows them to hunt small rodents, and sometimes even insects.
Lethal Weapon
How does this dangerous snake strike its prey? The royal cobra doses its very strong poison. Its volume depends on the size and weight of the victim. Usually its amount is several times higher than the lethal dose. Interestingly, eating poisoned prey, the snake itself does not suffer at all.
Usually, in order to scare away a person, a cobra bites, but does not release poison, since it is necessary for it to hunt. But by no means can you hope for it! Cobra venom can kill an elephant in a few hours. It paralyzes the muscular system, and the victim dies of suffocation. When poison enters the body, a person dies after 15 minutes.
This snake is of great interest to scientists. Cobra, whose venom is undoubtedly very toxic, can be beneficial to humans. How? In the course of research, it turned out that its poison in small doses can be used to make valuable medicines that have a positive effect on the cardiovascular and nervous systems, and normalize blood pressure. Scientists all over the world have been studying this poison for more than fifty years, and despite such a long period of research, they are discovering more and more new compounds in it that are useful for modern medicine.
Many people think that cobras are very aggressive. This is not true. They are very calm, you can even call their behavior phlegmatic. If you study well the habits of asps, then they can be controlled, which is often demonstrated by skillful "charmers" of snakes. The king cobra is a dangerous creature, but you should be aware that when it meets a person, it does not attack, but defends itself.
