{"id":28079,"date":"2024-11-18T01:27:11","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T19:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=28079"},"modified":"2025-10-14T11:46:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T06:16:31","slug":"king-cobra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/king-cobra\/","title":{"rendered":"King Cobra"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About King Cobra:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is the world\u2019s <strong>largest venomous snake<\/strong> and an active hunter.<\/li>\n<li>The main feature that distinguishes the king cobra from other cobras is the possession of 11 large scales on the crown of its head.<\/li>\n<li>It preys almost exclusively on other snakes, prowling in forests, fields, and villages in the daytime as well as at night.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It was in 1836 that a broad spectrum of king cobra species was <strong>named as Ophiophagus hannah by Danish naturalist,<\/strong> Theodore Edward Cantor.<\/li>\n<li>The amount of venom that they can deliver in a single bite is enough to kill 10 people or even an elephant.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>neurotoxin venom<\/strong> of king cobra affects the respiratory centres, causing respiratory arrest and cardiac failure.<\/li>\n<li>The king cobras are the <strong>only snakes in the world to build nests<\/strong> that are 4 ftx 3 ft and the female king cobras are found ferociously guarding them.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The study identified four species of king cobra:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ophiophagus kaalinga:<\/strong> Found in the <strong>Western Ghats<\/strong> of southwestern India, this species has fewer than 40 bands on its body.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ophiophagus hannah<\/strong>: Inhabiting <strong>northern and eastern India,<\/strong> the Andaman Islands, eastern Pakistan, Indo-Burma, Indo-China, and Thailand, this species displays 50 to 70 bands.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ophiophagus bungarus:<\/strong> Found in <strong>the Malay Peninsula,<\/strong> Greater Sunda Islands, and parts of southern Philippines, it features more than 70 bands.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ophiophagus salvatana:<\/strong> Native to <strong>Luzon in the northern Philippines<\/strong>, this species lacks bands altogether.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Conservation status<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>IUCN:<\/strong> Vulnerable<\/li>\n<li><strong>CITES:<\/strong> Appendix II<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Threats:<\/strong> Their survival is threatened by <strong>habitat destruction<\/strong> and exploitation for their skin, food, medicine, and the pet trade.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What is Snakebite Envenoming?<\/h3>\n<p>Snakebite Envenoming is a life-threatening medical condition caused by venomous snake bites. It is a major health concern in rural and snake-endemic regions. It poses a risk to vulnerable populations, including agricultural workers, children, and those living in tropical and subtropical areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>News:<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/karnataka\/kaalinga-will-be-the-scientific-name-for-kalinga-sarpa\/article68878600.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u2018Kaalinga\u2019 will be the scientific name for \u2018Kalinga Sarpa\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>King Cobra is the world\u2019s largest venomous snake and an active hunter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}