In the wild these would be in a nest of leaves and twigs constructed by the mother. But we prefer to incubate the eggs ourselves. King cobra eggs are relatively thin-shelled. For this reason, it is easy to determine if they are fertile by shining a bright light through the egg. This is called candling.
Here you can see the blood ring surrounding the little embryo with blood vessels radiating from it. Last year we hatched 17 baby king cobras. When they hatch, the little king cobras are brightly banded. They are absolutely fearless and will challenge any threat that presents itself.
In some king cobra populations, most notably those from parts of India, the adults retain these bands. However, the parents of these are from Malaysian stock. The father, named Golden Boy, is a big beautiful animal with a dark gold color and orange on the underside of his neck. He is about 14 feet long, by no means a record for king cobras!
His babies gradually lose their bands over the course of their first year. Here is one that hatched in June of last year.
Right now you can see one of last year's babies in our "nursery" exhibit in the Herpetarium. And you can see our big male, Golden Boy, just a few exhibits down!
Photographer: David L. Martin
2 comments:
Wow! I had no idea that baby cobras already had such a pronounced hood. I also had no idea that they were bred in captivity. Perhaps like me, most people presume that they are an abundant reptile and specimens are simply wild caught rather than hatched at zoo facilities. I would expect worrying about being bitten on the leg would be the last concern when the snake is that long! Facinated stuff!
Don
Thanks again for your interest, Don. Nowadays most of the animals you see in zoos, including reptiles, are captive-born. Most captive-born snakes do well in captivity, but baby king cobras are rather unusual. They generally refuse to eat and have to be force fed every week for many months. Fortunately they are relatively easy snakes to hold. No one has ever been bitten here doing this.
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