PHOTOS: Huge King Cobra rescued from house in Nakhon Sri Thammarat

[Jing Joe]

6 hours ago, Jing Joe said:

Off Road Pat may have supplied a pic of a Cobra but the captured so called "King" Cobra snake is actually not even the same genus.     

In Australia we have a "King" brown snake (Mulga) but it is not the same genus as brown snakes but of the black snake family.  If a type-specific anti venom is needed, black snake is the one.

 

I noticed straight up the cobra differences in the pics from scale identification in the real cobra in that the 4th upper lip scale (from the front) is directly under the eye and there was that all-important identifying shaped scale above the 5th and 6th scale where  it should be. 

In the captured King Cobra its the 3rd scale that's under the eye but the 5th and 6th have the usual I.D. scale above it.      It was then I searched Wikipedia for confirmation.

Just the same, all 4 snakes are dangerous.

So in L.O.S. and Oz the word "King" is traditionally too loosely used for both  Cobras and Browns.

BTW  The Oz brown snakes eyes are not visible from above the head because of predominant "eyebrow structure" if you will, and the King Browns eyes are visible from above as with black snakes. 

That's just a quick I.D. method without getting down eye to eye and seeking their permission to check their scales,  unless they are dead.         Been there, done that with both "browns".

Another confirmation of I.D. is by anal scales. Divided or single, but the lip scales are often enough.

 

A small correction;- On researching further, it seems the lip scales should be very similar between King Cobra and Cobra and by only going on a zoomed-in view of the captured King cobra it wasn't clear enough  to correctly differentiate as I did in my now-bold  type above.     Sorry.

The picture is confusing about the 3rd, 4th and the usually important Temporal I.D. scale above 5 and 6.    Maybe the guy is twisting the head a bit too.

Apparently there are more clues in upper head scales to really identify but who cares when its soooo long and everyone knows it as a deadly King Cobra even though its not in the Cobra Genus or family as discovered in 1836.          Maybe a very distant relation.     

And who cares when confronted with one,      Just do as the Russians might say;-- Nickoffski quickoffski.  

Edited March 14, 2017 by Jing Joe

[off road pat]

17 hours ago, sugarcane24 said:

I have wild snakes  of various kinds on my property and I love them being there! 

Lovely Whip Snake !Ahaetulla prasina.

[Jing Joe]

16 hours ago, off road pat said:

Lovely Whip Snake !Ahaetulla prasina.

What a really great pic Pat thanks for sharing.    Hope you took it? meaning;  it's one of your "pets".

Also hope no bigger snakes eat this beautiful creature.

I don't mind the thin whip snakes here in Oz but they sneak/slither  inside the house in the gap between the sliding fly-screen door and the glass door.   But my Thai wife is still scared of anything that even wiggles like a snake, and even was scared of Jing Joks.     Gekkos. 

 

[off road pat]

8 hours ago, Jing Joe said:

What a really great pic Pat thanks for sharing.    Hope you took it? meaning;  it's one of your "pets".

Also hope no bigger snakes eat this beautiful creature.

I don't mind the thin whip snakes here in Oz but they sneak/slither  inside the house in the gap between the sliding fly-screen door and the glass door.   But my Thai wife is still scared of anything that even wiggles like a snake, and even was scared of Jing Joks.     Gekkos. 

 

Wish I did took the pics, but I down loaded them from Thailand snakes .com, Vern the guy that runs the site has a great knowledge of snakes and goes herping ( Herping is the act of searching for amphibians or reptiles.) almost every night. the sight is very interesting and explicit. I use it sometimes to identify snakes.

Best regards.