|
1-3 of 3 messages
|
Page 1 of 1
|
|
RE: King Cobra
|
Reply
|
|
by Klaus on March 14, 2001
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
I'm not sure I understand your first question. A hunting king cobra will bite straight forward (not forward-downward like a cobra in defense posture) and will try to hit the head of a prey snake.. The diet of king cobras is almost exclusively other snakes, but young specimens and very occasionally adults can be persuaded to eat mice or rats.
|
| |
|
RE: King Cobra
|
Reply
|
|
by TAIPAN78 on March 14, 2001
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Hi Slayer,
O.hannah, I belive uses a few different strategies when hunting and biteig prey. For instance, I have seen photage (Natioal Geographic special)of a big king takeing down and eating a 7ft rat snake. The approach looked somewhat defensive for the king was partialy hooded, learing over the soon to be dead rat snake. The strike came down like with some true cobras and he hit midbody on the snake. As with alot of elapids, he hung on and chewed vigirously untill the snake was dead but did recive quite a few nips in the process. Now obviously for a rat snake, this strategy works fine but O.hannah is known to take other vens as prey like kraits, cobras and Russel's vipers and it would be bad practise to allow such dangerous snakes to start biteing back in selve defence. In this case I think they do go for the head like Kalus said to avoid injury.
As for prey, they are almost exclusively snake eaters. Some have been known to take small monitors or even the ocasional rodent but snakes make up, probally more then 90% of their natural diet.
Hope this helps.
Later,
Jeremy
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this topic.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Check our help page for help using
, or send questions, comments, or suggestions to the
Manager.
|
