The diet of a king cobra is fairly specialized, and it is mainly other snakes. They eat snakes such as Asian rat snakes and pythons up to about 10 feet long. Some king cobras prefer one kind of snake and refuse to eat any other.

King cobras are active by day, while other cobras are often more active in the evening. They have better eyesight than most snakes. A king cobra can raise the front part of its body about three to four feet off the ground to see over bushes and tall grass.

A king cobra's fangs are fixed to its upper jaw, so they have to be short. Venom is made in glands joined to the fangs, and a small muscle pushes it through the hollow fangs. King cobra venom has neurotoxins, which are poisons that act on the nervous system.

King cobras belong to the family Elapidae, which many other venomous snakes share. They live from northern India east to southern China and south through the Malay Peninsula to western Indonesia and the Philippines. They often stay near streams, where the temperature and the wet air stay steady.

A king cobra can spread a hood on its neck, which makes it look bigger. Its hiss is lower than most snakes' hisses and sounds more like a dog's growl. The snake makes this sound with tiny holes in its windpipe, and the lung makes the sound deeper.

King cobras are threatened by the destruction of their habitats. Cutting down forests in Southeast Asia has destroyed the homes of many of them. They are also hunted for their skin, for food and for traditional medicine. As of November 2026, the IUCN Red List lists the king cobra as Vulnerable.

The king cobra is the only snake that builds a nest for its eggs. The mother uses her body to pull leaves and plants into a pile, and the rotting leaves give off heat that keeps the eggs warm.

A female lays about 21 to 40 eggs, and she stays on top of the nest to guard them. The eggs sit in the nest through spring and summer and hatch in the fall. Just before the eggs hatch, the mother leaves the nest.

Words to know

• specialized: narrow, focused
• neurotoxins: nerve poisons
• Elapidae: snake family
• habitats: home places