The king cobra is known as a snake eater, hence the scientific name Ophiophagus (Greek for snake eating) and feeds almost exclusively on other snakes.
Ang Yang Yang, a wildlife photographer in Singapore captured with his camera what he called a lifer, seeing not one but two king cobras (Ophiophagus hannah) in a cannibalisitic attack. Yang posted his photographs and video on the Singapore Wildlife Sightings Facebook page.
“Thanks to the alert of a king cobra sighted in Windsor Nature Park this morning, I decided to try out my luck since I have not spotted this king before. Lorenzo came soon after and just as he was about to leave, spotted a long snake in the stream. I rushed over and saw a few metres away.. Wait it’s not one but two (!!) king cobras and the one in the water was the smaller one,” Yang wrote on Facebook.
“The two were engaged in a tremendous tussle for hours and the fight continued on land and then back in the stream but eventually the larger cobra was all too strong and the smaller cobra succumbed, becoming a snack. Only the second time the king cobra is spotted eating its own kind in Singapore so what a tremendous record and tremendous way to secure a lifer!!!” Yang said.
The King cobra is the world’s largest venomous snake. Yang described the larger one to be about 3 1/2 to 5 meters in length while the smaller one was about 2 meters in length. In October, scientists reclassified the species into three subspecies in addition to Ophiophagus hannah. So four king cobra species make up the Ophiophagus genus. The three subspecies are O. bungarus, O. kaalinga, O. salvatana.
New King Cobra Species Discovered In India
The king cobra is known as a snake eater, hence the scientific name Ophiophagus (Greek for snake eating) and feeds almost exclusively on other snakes. They are a terrestrial species and live in dense highland forests, open woods and pasturelands near bodies of water. They are the largest venomous snake in the world, often exceeding 16 feet in length.
