Talk:King cobra

message: 30 feet?  Really? D:  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.130.17 (talk) 03:47, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It was vandalism. Be bold. -Dawson 16:32, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Misc

message: We should add something that Kings are smarter than other snakes (that's why it avoids attacking, it is always cautious of its energy and Austin says that the way the snake looks at you is very different from others.) Frankyboy5 05:49, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Smarter than other snakes?

message: to whomever dug up and added several of those needed cites - much appreciated  - Metanoid 01:56, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Citations 

message: If possible, could we get an image of a full-grown KC standing with its hood spread? That's obviously how people envision a King Cobra. 68.166.66.217 04:26, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hooded Image 

message: How do you manage to get close to a king cobra and take a picture of one without getting attacked or having the snake flee? It must be hard!                                                                                                         Love,                                                                                             Makala Sherman, March 12,2008   
well, that's what EOS and that larger-than-my-arm zoom lenses are for. 125.163.84.202 17:37, 26 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Holy Snakes! 

message: "...King Cobras usually do not exceed 44 lb (20 kg) in bodyweight." 
In fact, they don't get even close. The Guinness weight record stands at 12.75 kg (28 lb 1¾ oz) for a 4.39 m (14 ft 5 in) specimen that died in the Bronx Zoo in 1973. The longest was a 5.72 m (18 ft 9 in) specimen that died in the London Zoo in 1939. The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is the largest (=heaviest) venomous snake in the world at up to 15.4 kg (34 lb), although this specimen was only 2.36 m (7 ft 9 in) long. 
--Anshelm '77 (talk) 20:28, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Good enough for me!--Mike Searson (talk) 22:01, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Weight 

message: I don't feel quite up to starting this section now, but I think the cobra is such a classic image and symbol in movies, arts, and literature that a list of some of the most well-known uses would enhance the article.
"The Black mamba is almost as deadly as the Cobra, but the Cobra can kill people 5 times faster than the mamba" - This sentence seems highly dubious to me. It is inconsistent with the Black Mamba page and not supported by the citations that follow it, neither of which contains any direct comparison of cobra vs. mamba envenomation. Harmoneduc8 (talk) 19:21, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  In Popular Culture 

message: What do people think about substituting image 1 for the current lead image? This one does show more of the snake, although it doesn't have as much wow factor. Tim Vickers (talk) 15:39, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Eh, neither one really "wows" me as a great exemplar image.  If possible, the photo should convey the two most salient features - its hood, and its great size.  I have a friend with two adults, and I'll see if she'll give me permission to use photos. Mokele (talk) 16:18, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: That would be great! Of course the permission has to be for release under a free licence, not just "use in Wikipedia". See Wikipedia:Image use policy for more details. Tim Vickers (talk) 16:29, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Lead image

message: Is it really in "extreme Southern Florida" or is that vandalism? --98.196.19.143 (talk) 20:53, 29 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Florida? 

message: The lead says its range includes Pakistan. The distribution map does not include Pakistan. Which is right? 69.204.67.42 (talk) 07:26, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: It is found mostly in forested regions and even the "throughout India" is incorrect. This article needs more citations, and the map appears to be quite reliable in this case. Shyamal (talk) 08:04, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Pakistan?

message: Can anyone tell me why the common name is capitalised everywhere in this article?  Is there any historical or proper use which causes the name to be written "King Cobra" instead of "king cobra"?  According to the naming conventions, It looks to me like all the instances of capitalisation should be undone. Thoughts? Struhs (talk) 18:02, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Why capitalise the common name?

message: The NGOs Only rescue Cobra from Snake Charmer and they leave them in forest instead of any safe place like Santauary or any National Reserve so that they can have less interaction with humans.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.246.241.42 (talk) 12:27, 28 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Why The NGO's are not Taking responsibilty of Resciung King Cobra 

message: Guys Wikipedia policy is to have metric first then imperial in brackets after for all subjects that do not pertain to cultural aspects of a country that still uses the imperial system e.g. the USA and Burma. So for example on the subject of venom "the snake's half-inch (1.25 cm) fangs" metric should come first then imperial in brackets or left out all together. Can someone fix this please.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dawei san (talk • contribs) 01:47, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Use of Metric 

message: The King Cobra is currently described as being just one monotypic species. However, there have been studies suggesting there may be several distinct species. Should this be included in the article? One reputable source is Mark O'Shea's Venomous Snakes of the World. Frankyboy5 (talk) 17:48, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: For consistency, we use the ITIS database for taxonomy.  On one hand, it means we may not always be up to date, but it avoids having to make a bunch of page moves every time someone publishes a new paper that'll just be overturned in 6 months. Mokele (talk) 22:15, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Subspecies 

message: King cobras can kill elephants.. I have numerous accounts
Here
http://wildlife1.wildlifeinformation.org/S/00dis/toxic/biotoxin/Snake_Bite_Ele.html
And here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1526287/Elephants-show-compassion-in-face-of-death.html
And here
http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2010/04/silhouetted-in-the-andaman-sea-an-elephant-takes-a-morning-dip-in-the-warm-waters-photo-cesare-naldirajan-a-60-year.html
SO do yourself a favor wikipedia... stop deleting stuff that you clearly have no idea what you are talking about...  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Animalfan10 (talk • contribs) 20:23, 31 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  King cobra can kill elephants 

message: Who is the auctor?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jonte93 (talk • contribs) 15:03, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Auctor 

message: There were a lot of old myths, conjectures, and "references" that were unverifiable. For example, the idea that a king cobra bite can kill a human within 15 minutes is conjecture and myth. The idea that somehow the "Chinese king cobra is much more venomous than other KC's" is also conjecture and not based on fact and had a "reference" which couldn't be read and thus not verifiable. The "Chinese KC" is not separated by land or sea from other KC's in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, etc. so why would it be any different? They evolved together in one major land mass which was land locked (mainland Asia). However, the Philippines cobra, the Indian KC, and perhaps some of the Indonesian KC's diverged from the mainland KC, but that's it. Based on it's evolution, the KC never needed an extremely toxic venom like a lot of smaller snakes because it was so big that the venom injected was always enough to kill their prey - so they never needed a toxic venom. It makes very little sense. The KC has one of the least potent venom's among almost all elapids (in fact, I can't think of one elapid which is less toxic right now), but what makes it dangerous is the amount of venom that it can deliver in a bite. Even still, I have sources Snake mortality rates that have the KC morality rate at 33%. So I clean it up and left it with only verifiable references and facts. Sebastian80 (talk • contribs) 16:31, 14 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Myths, conjectures, and unverifiable sources

message: Many reference cited around the encyclopedia are also books which the location and author name or ISBN are stated.Not all reference should be a website; mortality rate has various kinds and the one stated is the untreated one with the support of Dr.Davidson's research which the severity of the envenomation was classified as well.It makes sense that other reports from different localities may release different data but that doesn't mean the one here is not a fact.33% is the recent mortality rate (with treatment) as about one-third of the bitten victims die ;15 min. is not a myth and the case was received by Singapore U and is reported in the book as well.;"Chinese" KC here does not mean evolutionary relationship or other things.It is just because the specimens were caught in China.The section about Chinese venomous snakes in the book clearly states the LD50 of KC and Naja atra caught are 0.34mg/kg and 0.53 mg/kg respectively.The data 1.7 mg/kg compared with Naja naja's 0.565 mg/kg is the one which released in the late 20th century done by a group of Australian scientists and hence the article states "a recent toxicology study...". User:Fearingpredators (talk) 1:25, 15 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: With all due respect, but your unverifiable edits just don't stand. It matters little that the books have the authors names and an ISBN number, but that is not enough. I can do the same with a book I find and state that the "...such and such scientist reported seeing a king cobra biting and killing an elephant" and then put the authors name and ISBN number and say "see, I got a reference". With all due respect, you're a laymen in this subject, while I and a couple of other posters have relevant degrees. I have a bachelors in laboratory technology and studied toxicology in depth. Your grammar is also terrible, that is another problem. The "Chinese KC" is no different from the ones found in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, or other mainland Asia KC's (besides perhaps the distant Indian KC, which is the KC most well studied). They all evolved together and as large venomous snakes that were able to inject massive amounts of venom and kill their prey by that means - so there never was a need for the KC to develop a highly potent neurotoxic venom like the ones that kraits, mambas, or tiger snakes have, just for example. So it does not make sense that some "caught Chinese KC had this immensely potent venom" on the scale of the aforementioned snakes. When something doesn't make sense, it's usually not true. I'm sorry, but your edits are disruptive and can even be considered vandalism since you are referencing books which people do not have access to and thus cannot verify. The material you are posting is also not based in fact and I've never heard of "super toxic Chinese KC's" and I'm sure no one else has. Chinese KC's having some super toxic venom is unbelievable because not only has nobody heard about it but you, but it goes against how the KC evolved. They evolved to be large venomous snakes that deliver massive quantities of venom to kill prey, thus eliminating the need to develop a very toxic venom. I am going to revert you edits back to the way it was until you bring me verifiable information and data. If it's true, it shouldn't be that hard for you. Bastian (talk) 18:00, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

text: First of all, there is no naja species that has venom that's more toxic than any mamba, especially the black mamba. Second of all, there is no such thing as a "Chinese king cobra" the region is all one region and the king cobras are all one species/sub species. The Indian KC is a distant relative, but it still is a KC. Evolution of the KC never required it to produce a highly toxic venom, that is a fact. Not your unverifiable claims of myths and conjecture. When a snake has enough venom to kill it's prey, then it doesn't need to evolve to have a very toxic venom. Do you get that part? How do we know the "books" you are citing aren't children's books? There are a lot of "snake", "big cat", "elephants", etc childrens books which have basic facts and even sometimes references to myths and legends. Your claims are unverifiable and they go against what we know about the KC. Yes, books are cited on wikipedia, but often with links to these books and names of authors whom many know in the field. Yours are unverifiable. We don't even have a link to the so-called "books" which you are getting this information from. Bastian (talk) 15:24, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

text: naja atra isn't the king cobra. It's not even remotely related to it besides being an elapid. Why would a KC have more toxic venom in China than one in Cambodia or Thailand? They are all one subspecies and all have the same ancestry. So why would one KC have such a toxic venom, while another one of the same subspecies not? It doesn't make sense. They inject enough venom to kill a prey or a human, so they never needed a very toxic venom. That's how they evolved - size/volum of venom per bite over venom toxicity. Do you not get it? This is like saying 1+1=11 (what you are saying). Evolution doesn't have mythical views of creatures, like you do of the KC.  Bastian (talk) 15:50, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

text: So if what you claim is true then you can scan the relevant pages and prove that you are right. And don't worry, there are no copyright issues because you would still be referencing the book, author, publisher, etc - you're just verifying your "references". Very easy and it solves a lot of your problems if you do that. If you knew anything about herpetology, you'd know that herpetologists don't just calculate the lethal human dose based on , but it's based on a combination of the , record of human bite cases, and study on the venom itself - it's components, etc. Herpetologists have calculated the lethal dose of many snake venoms, including many rattlesnakes subspecies, puff adder, saw-scaled viper, and many elapids aswell. Is this something new to you? Bastian (talk) 18:07, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Clarification

message: I cleaned up the "Venom" section of this article. It was much needed. However, the last part of the "Venom" section seems to be plagiarized from here and here : 
:"The haditoxin in the king cobra venom was discovered by Singaporean scientists to be structurally unique and can have unique pharmacological properties.[27] Biochemical studies confirmed that it existed as a non-covalent dimer species in solution. Its structural similarity to short-chain α-neurotoxins and κ-neurotoxins notwithstanding, haditoxin exhibited unique blockade of α7-nAChRs (IC50 180 nM), which is recognized by neither short-chain α-neurotoxins nor κ-neurotoxins."
I'm going to leave it for now, but the "Venom" section is finally all cleaned up and is now objective and factual, without conjecture and misleading information. Bastian (talk) 20:00, 24 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cleaned up 

message: I think there exists an unsupported claim on this article.
There is a sentence claiming that severe bites from king cobras are exceptionally rare as most untreated victims in Asia live through their bites and two websites are given as references. 
Yet, this source doesn't have such information. Instead, it mentions that bites form king cobras should be considered as true medical emergency. 
Another website cited does mention that many bites from king cobras involve non-fatal dose of venom. However, this is just based on a single source.Bites involving non-fatal amounts of venom (to normal people) can also cause deaths since some victims could be allergic to the toxins and such bites may induce some other problems as well (like bacterial infection). 
Here are two reports which show that bites from this species are often severe - this document which mentions that although bites from king cobras are rare, they're among snakes causing the most fatalities in Thailand (P.66) (but...I think this source has a problem regarding the scientific name of this species.It gives a name of Naja hannah which is wrong.) and this website which is about the evaluation of snakebite severity and other medical information based on snakebite precedents received by South Indian Hospital (Table 3 reveals that two-thirds of the patients bitten by king cobras were classified as "severe" grade). I think this evaluation is good as it clearly and directly presents the statistics.  
Anyway, I included both of the sources and mentioned that findings may vary from source to source. 
Cheers! 
Toxic Walker (talk) 13:16, 3 May 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: This source is not great, and would be classed as a non-reliable source most likely. Review Medical Articles would be the best - this website is of a doctor, but snakes seems to be more of a hobby than vocation (??). this is better but still a single study rather than a Review Article. Interesting question......I think we need some more sources, but I haven't yet looked at the article. Casliber (talk · contribs) 09:56, 17 June 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  An unsupported claim? 

message: Where does the species name Hannah come from? Did Theodore Cantor name it after his daughter or something? There's no mention of this in the article... VenomousConcept (talk) 22:02, 30 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hannah? 

message: "The charmer is usually tattooed with three pictograms, using an ink mixed with snake venom; superstition holds that it protects the charmer from the snake" -- is this superstition?  It sounds a lot like mithridatism to me (see Snake venom#immunity).  I haven't read the offline source quoted, but would it trouble anyone to change, say, "superstition" to "tradition"? Wnt (talk) 23:34, 5 January 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: I retried the search and found a source to support that position, so I made a larger change in this direction. Wnt (talk) 16:50, 7 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Superstition"? 

message: Black Mamba
Naja
Indian Cobra
Spitting Cobra
Inland taipan
Coral Snake
Egyptian Cobra
Boa constrictor
Mamba
Burmese Python
Snake  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.199.255.106 (talk) 12:58, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  snake 

message: "In the Indian Subcontinent, the king cobra is believed to possess exceptional memory. According to a myth, the picture of the killer of a king cobra stays in the eyes of the snake, which is later picked up by the partner and is used to hunt down the killer for revenge. Because of this myth, whenever a cobra is killed, especially in India, the head is either crushed or burned to damage the eyes completely."
Do you think it would be ok to omit 'especially in india'? It just seems to be somewhat redundant since it is said in the indian subcontinent. I know that of course it refers to the geographic area and not the country itself, but is there any way this could be reworded? Just seeking input, have a great day! Rotund but Reasonable (talk) 21:12, 9 March 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Cultural Significance

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: This revert is not clear. --AntanO 07:18, 11 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: You may refer the book "The Divine Codes: The untimely edition of Timely Matters" and local language book. There are myth and fact. --AntanO 07:32, 11 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: In that case, please write a sentence to go under King_cobra#Cultural_significance describing this belief and provide the above source as an inline reference. I suppose that would be a suitable hook to hang an image on.-- Elmidae (talk · contribs) 11:02, 11 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Revert 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: "In Thailand, a concoction of alcohol and the ground root of turmeric is ingested, which has been clinically shown to create a strong resilience against the venom of the king cobra, and other snakes with neurotoxic venom".
This is referenced but appears very dubious. 
117.204.92.31 (talk) 16:21, 12 September 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Surprisingly enough, this seems legit. The current cite is a summary statement in a guidebook, which might be less solid, but the sources behind that (mostly E. Lattman's research) are quite definite. Apparently curcuma and relatives contain a number of effective anti-envenomation compounds. I added a journal cite to the statement to shore it up a bit. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 18:10, 12 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dubious claim 

message: There is an inconsistency between the maximum length for the species provided in the lead (5.85 m) and the one stated in the body of the article (5.71 m).  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.91.212.222 (talk) 15:57, 12 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Largest king cobra

message: "It can deliver up to 420 mg venom in dry weight (400-600 mg overall) per bite"
This is not supported by the citation provided (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cobra#Venom) and kinda sus.
BIG  BIG  CHUNGUS 10:40, 24 May 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: The cited source actually says 350–500 mg per bite. Was there a second source that got deleted somewhere along the line? —C.Fred (talk) 23:41, 26 May 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, so many of the poisonous snake pages were edited in the past by  and their many sockpuppets. Have a look at the sock list if you have spare time and then see which pages they've been involved with. It took a few of us a protracted period to clean up the various mamba species and am slowly making my way through more. They had a habit of exaggerating and misinterpreting sources and using verbose superlative language not consistent with the sources. Also complicated by the fact that alot of sourcing of snake information can be hard to track down. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 01:14, 27 May 2021 (UTC)
thread_title: Sus number in venom section

message: I finally, found a reliable article about the fact that the king cobra is an apex predator.
Here's the link - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1940082918818401
Of course check it out, and if you think it's reliable, then please edit the article about it, giving this link. And add the king cobra to the apex predator category. But if you think the article is unreliable, then tell me about it.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.0.188.228 (talk) 14:59, 13 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Please 

message: Why doesn't the article mention the alternative name "hamadryad," as some of the sources listed do?  Admittedly, this name is probably little used today.  Kostaki mou (talk) 17:31, 3 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  alternate name 

message: End of first paragraph, it states that lizards are "non-reptiles." That is obviously an error. 5.186.120.96 (talk) 21:35, 17 January 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Not sure exactly what the body is trying to say, there's some point that has been lost I suspect. Given the gist being it mostly eats snakes, I have made the change. CMD (talk) 21:50, 17 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 17 January 2022 

message: Found this information very clear and concise, considering I know nothing about King Cobra snakes.  Nanalpr (talk) 04:06, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Relevance 

message: A very important piece of information is left away about the King Cobra. 
His main meal is other snakes, aswell as cobra's and other venomous snakes. A crucial piece of information is not mentioned on Wikipedia about the King Cobra. 
The King Cobra is resistant to all the Venom of other Venomous snakes.
Biologists gathered blood of the King Cobro to find out how this is possible, and they are searching for a possible antidote for Venomous snake bites, by researching the DNA of the King Cobra.
The King Cobra is immuun to all the Venom of Snakes.
Due to this the King Cobra is able to consume other snakes and venomous snakes. 109.37.131.196 (talk) 11:59, 21 August 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 15:20, 21 August 2023 (UTC)

text: There is a review paper which mentions this hypothesis. It is suggested that no conclusion can be made since male king cobras from time to time do get killed by other fellows during battles for mates. It is not likely they are immune to the venom. RoyalRover (talk) 16:56, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 21 August 2023 

message: Change ”With an average length of 3.18 to 4 m (10.4 to 13.1 ft) and a maximum record of 5.85 m (19.2 ft),[2] it is the world's longest venomous snake with diversified colouration across habitats, from black with white stripes to unbroken brownish grey“ to “With an average length of 3.18 to 4 m (10.4 to 13.1 ft) and a maximum record of 5.85 m (19.2 ft),[2] it is the world's longest venomous snake. The species has diversified colouration across habitats, from black with white stripes to unbroken brownish grey.” 195.99.12.91 (talk) 20:14, 11 September 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Pinchme123 (talk) 03:44, 12 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 11 September 2023 

message: Current text: "A female king cobra is among few snakes guarding the nest to protect the eggs throughout the incubation period."
Improper grammar; proposing a change to the following: "A female king cobra is among the few snakes known to guard the nest and protect the eggs throughout the incubation period." MourningSilver (talk) 12:59, 25 September 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Done with a source added. RoyalRover (talk) 16:49, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Grammatical correction 

message: The Binomial name of the species should read Ophiophagus hannah (Cantor, 1836), with the parentheses per ICZN rule 51.3. , as the species was moved from the genus Hamadryas, in which it was originally described, to the genus Ophiophagus. Sparassus (talk) 15:19, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Awhellnawr123214 (talk) 06:22, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: |ans=yes Awhellnawr123214 (talk) 06:30, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 19 October 2023