Reptile & Amphibian Forums

1) Being a Ophiophagus species, Do King cobras eat other venomous snakes that share its range (other cobras, kraits etc.)? If so, does it have an immunity to their venoms?

2)We all know that the Inland Taipan is the world's most toxic snake bar none, but it's an elapid. I was wondering what's the most toxic member of the viperidae family?

I'll let others tackle the first part. For the other..without doing any research, my first impression is Echis..probably carinatus.

~~Greg~~

Like Greg, I will defer answering part one. Good question though! I am curious to know the answer too.

I agree with Greg on the second part: E. carinatus has my vote too. If you check Bryan G. Fry's LD50 chart it has a very scary, very low number.
Venom Doc

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You can't enjoy your collection if it kills you.

My opinion resides with the others that have posted to this thread so far. E. carinatus is probably the hottest, drop for drop, viperid around.

As to your first question, my assumption would be that yes, kings do prey on other venomous species. I believe I have a book or two floating around here saying something to that effect, but finding them would be futile in my unorganized masses of books and papers. They will also eat pythons and small Varanids. Most ophiophagic species, like NA kingsnakes, mussuranas (Clelia clelia), and the many Varanids that make use of venomous snakes as prey, have coevolved a partial to full resistance to those specific animals' venoms. That's not to say, though, that if a kingsnake were to be bitten by an African cobra or a taipan or something while trying to eat it that it'd necessarily be able to survive the venom effects. Immunity has to be specific to the venom, since venoms vary a *huge* amount between species and genera. Just ask anyone to self-immunizes (not recommended). They have to inject multiple species venoms into their systems to build up tolerances to those specific snakes. The same often goes for making antivenoms. So yes, it is reasonable to assume that kings have an immunity to most or all of the venoms of the snakes that cohabitate the area.

Great questions (and no venomoid crap!! lol). I hope there are further, more informed replies...ahem...BGF, WW?
-Chance
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Chance Duncan
http://www.rivervalleysnakes.com

The reason that I asked the 1st question is because when I was watching tv (I don't remember if it was on PBS or Animal planet), there was a show where the host made a mention about King Cobras. He said that King Cobras were intelligent enough to differentiate between venomous and non-venomous snakes, and that they would try to avoid the venomous ones out of fear of being bitten. I don't know if the host was just pulling that one out of his ass or not, but hopefully someone here who is really in the know will respond.

I heard that claim as well (that kings avoid venomous species for fear of being bitten), and think I read it before too, in a U.S. Military venomous snake identification book (the same book goes on to show a picture of a taipan and calls it a death adder). Kings do prey on other venomous species, including other, smaller kings.

Is immunity needed? Hots avoid rat bites by way of strike and wait; why wouldn't this work with a riskier prey item like a venomous snake?

Elapids that feed on other snakes can't just do a strike-release action because they have to chew a fair bit in order to work their fangs through the scales. So, a king would in fact have some immunity to the venomous snakes (e.g. Naja species) that it feeds on. This is similar to the black head python in Australia, which loves to feed on elapids and has components in its serum that help it be resistent to their venoms.

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
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Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
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Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit,
Museum Victoria
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http://www.venomdoc.com