The King Cobra or Hamadryad, Ophiophagus hannah (Cantor, 1836). Top photo. A captive at the Red Cross Venom Unit, Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, Bangkok. King Cobras are the largest venomous snake, they range from northern India eastward to tropical China and the Philippines, and southward through Indochina and Indonesia. The hamadryad is diurnal, often associated with the forest along the edges streams. They are usually terrestrial, but do not hesitate to forage into shrubs or trees. Most specimens are in the 3-4 m range, but the record size for this snake is about 5.85 m. Bottom photo. The large size of the hamadryad makes it well suited for snake shows and in northern Thailand's Khon Kaen Province the village of Ban Kok Sa-nga is known as King Cobra Village. The village claims to raise hamadryads as pets and put on shows for tourists. As with many snake charmers the village snake handlers also sell herbal medicines. Females lay clutches of 20-51 eggs in a nest made of vegetation that the female constructs. The female guards the eggs for 60-80 days. Hatchlings from at least populations have a strikingly vivid pattern of alternating black and yellow rings. Aposematic coloring, and coloring remarkably similar to that of the Mangrove Snake, Boiga dendrophila. The Hamadryad feeds mostly upon other snakes.
Monocellate Cobra, Naja kaouthia (Lesson, 1831). Top two photos are of a captive animal from Thailand. The bottom photo was taken at the King Cobra Village in Khon Kaen Province, Thailand and it is most likely this species (however, this species is very difficult to distinguish from N. siamensis, see below). Adults may reach 2.3 m. However, specimens over 1.5 m are rather uncommon. This species occurs from northeast India and Myanmar east into Thailand and tropical China, as well as most of Indochina. It feeds upon a variety of vertebrates. It is crepuscular and diurnal, occasionally basking during cooler weather. It (as well as other cobras) is hunted for its value in Chinese folk medicine, its blood, gall bladder, and other tissues are believed to improve eye sight and erectile dysfunction, as well as other ailments.
The Spectacled Cobra, Naja naja (Linnaeus, 1758). This is a South Asian snake, inhabiting Pakistan, India, Nepal. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Its pattern is highly variable and because of this it was long confused with Southeast Asian taxa. Adults may exceed 2 m, but most are less than 1.5 m. Like most cobras it is crepuscular (active at dusk and dawn) and diurnal (active during the day). But it may also be active at night. It uses a variety of habitats including agroecosystems and urbanized areas where rats are abundant. Females lay 12-30 eggs between April and July (the time may be correlated with latitude). Rice cultivation has undoubtedly increased the habitat for this snake, it uses holes in the banks of the dikes used to control water flow and rice cultivation has also created more favorable habitats for rats. The venom of this snake is quite toxic and the symptoms usually appear soon (<10-30 minutes) after the bite. Naja naja venom effects the nervous system (drooping eyelids, difficulty speaking and swallowing, gasping for air, and weakness) but it will also cause necrosis (damage to tissues around the bite site due to digestive-like enzymes).
Nagapanchami or the Serpent Festival occurs in India generally in August after the monsoon rains. It is then that the full impact of Cobra power is manifest. Throughout the country Cobras are either brought into the villages and fed, or effigies of the snake are anointed and worshipped. Rarely has it ever been recorded that a fatality has occurred from snakebite during this occasion; the Cobras appear to sense they are being revered.
In summer, during the wet season in India Nagapanchami is celebrated according to ancient rites. During this time the cobra is venerated and the timing may not be accidental. Burrows are flooded out during the heavy rains and the snakes retreat to higher ground, real estate that is inhabited by humans. Snakes are collected by snake charmers and brought to villages where women offer flowers and milk to the snakes and give the snake charmers food and money. Some of the snakes are then released in front of the house. This event has elements that suggest the snake has the power to increase prosperity as well as human female fertility.
These four photos were taken in southern Sri Lanka. The snakes being used are the spectacled cobra, Naja naja. Cobras are perhaps the ultimate snake for the snake charmer. The snake's reputation as being dangerous and highly venomous is world wide, and it has a spectacular defense display, raising the body and flattening its neck.
Snake charmers may be best known from Africa and south Asia, where images of the traditional flute-playing snake charmers sitting in front of baskets are common. However, snake charmers occur in all countries, cultures, and times. The charmers often charm more than snakes, frequently they develop a following with beliefs that the charmers hold secrets, secrets that allow them to control snake behavior, over come the effects of snake venom, and even resurrect those who have died from snakebite. Snake symbols are deeply embedded in human culture and the control of snakes may be best viewed as a symbol for the control nature. Control of nature is a popular theme in cultures worldwide and controlling the snake is symbolic for controlling nature.
In Asia, snakes are believed to be guardians of wealth and fertility. In Myanmar, a snake priestess leans over a hooded king cobra and kisses the top of its hood; this is believed to encourage the monsoon rains and thus fertility of crops. While in Cambodia and Thailand Buddha is frequently illustrated seated on the coils of a large cobra, while the snake’s spread hood covers his head like a protective umbrella. In August, 2001 more than 100 snake charmers gathered in Delhi, India to honor the Hindu snake goddess Manasa. Snakes, particularly cobras, are powerful symbols in Indian folklore each year Nag Panchami is celebrated in the summer (July-August), a time that corresponds to annual monsoon rains. In some villages cobras are captured and held is religious rites that involve dancing through the streets and offerings of rice, milk, honey, followed by the release of snakes in front of houses so that the people living there will receive the snake’s blessings. Entire Asian societies have been built around snake charming. In the eastern Indian village of Padmakesharpur more than 500 families, introduce their children to snakes at an early age. The men in the village primarily make their living as snake charmers while the women were adept at applying tattoos. Marriages occurred only between members of the village. However, conservation laws, habitat destruction, and the designation of wildlife reserves have forced these people to look for other kinds of work in recent years. In Kerala, in southwest India, the Pulluvan are a society of shamans and singers in snake groves, and are well known for curing the ills of pregnant women. They are best known for carryout healing acts by controlling a night wandering spirits that morph into birds. During the summer (July-August), they may be commissioned by households to conduct the pooja, a ritual believed to please the divine serpents. The ritual involves specially made musical instruments, and an elaborate, ephemeral piece of art made from colored vegetable dyes that drain from a hollow coconut. A young female child from the household sits on top of a kalam, a clay pot covered with calfskin, and used it as a string instrument that is played during the pooja. As the music is played the girl goes into a trance which may involve her dragging her body on the ground through the colorful artwork on the ground and erasing it. The Pullivans and their customers believe that the girl becomes possessed by the sacred snakes, and they ask the girl if she is satisfied with the ceremony, if she is, it means the snakes are also satisfied. However, if the girl is not satisfied the ceremony is repeated.
Indo-Chinese Spitting Cobra, Naja siamensis Laurenti, 1768. Photographed at the Red Cross Venom Unit, Bangkok. Adults reach 1.6 m. This snake is very difficult to distinguish from N. kaouthia on the basis of morphology (the ventral counts however, will distinguish them). None the less they are distinct species (Wuster and Thorpe, 1994 Experientia, 50: 75-79). Naja siamensis will spit its venom, where as N. kaouthia will rarely, if ever spit. Spitting venom is a characteristic of a number of different African and Asian cobras and the modifications to the venom delivery system of spitters is quite minimal. Species capable of spitting venom have a reduced orifice on the fang. Thus, by restricting the size of the opening the venom flows through, the snake increases the fluid pressure and is able to "spit" its venom a distance of at least a few meters. Most spitting cobras aim for the eyes of the animal that is harassing them. Thus, temporarily blinding the potential predator so that the snake can escape. Spitting is a defensive behavior, not an offensive behavior.
Goring Jones (1900 Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 13:376.) provided what may be the first description of “spitting venom” from a cobra near Mandalay, Burma (now Myanmar).
“Yesterday evening as Lieut. Gibson of our regiment was going to his quarters to dress for Mess he saw a snake at which he proceeded to throw a stone. He then called for a light and a stick, and as he was bending down with the light to look for the snake, it made a dart at him but fortunately missed its aim. Some of the poison of saliva, however, was ejected into Lieut. Gibson’s eye causing instant and great pain, and the eye lids and parts round swelled up quickly to the size of a large hen’s egg. The snake was killed, and was found to be a small black cobra about 3 feet 4 inches in length. Lieut. Gibson went to the hospital and after a painful night recovered his eyesight.”
