Discovery
The King cobra Ophiophagus Hannah was first discovered and described by Theodore Edward Cantor in 1836. It has then since been scientifically studied, restudied, classified, reclassified, named and renamed many times by multiple scientists till as late as 1961.
Its naming and classification have always been challenging, unsettled and contentious at best. This is because of the presence of variations in external appearance, in terms of colour pattern of the king cobras, with respect to age, gender and even geographic locations, all complicating its identifications very much. The status quo continued ever since with a hunch that it could comprise many species hidden under a single name.
This is an outcome of a decade-long endeavour to preserve our unique wildlife biodiversity. Through research initiatives, Kālinga Foundation has contributed valuable insights into the ecology and conservation of key species, aiding in development of effective conservation strategies.
DISCOVERY THAT MATTERS
After 185 years, research now proves that the King Cobra is not a single species. The King Cobra has been considered as a monotypic genus, meaning that they were considered as a single species. Dr P Gowri Shankar looked at their widespread distribution and hypothesised that they could represent a species complex i.e., multiple species could exist.
King Cobras occur in varied habitats ranging from the tropics, subtropics and temperate areas. They are found in;
- Wet regions of the Western and Eastern Ghats of Peninsular India and Andaman Islands
- Himalayan foothills of northern India (Uttarakhand),
- East across Northeast India to southern China, and
- Southeast across Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, to Sumatra, Borneo, Java,
Bali, Sulawesi and with its eastern-most extent in Mindanao in the Philippines (Das, 2010; Wallach et al., 2014).
Research spanning a decade, Dr Gowri and his teams collected tissue samples by clipping ventral scales similar to cutting nails or hair from the field, zoos, and museums. The team then processed these samples to obtain the DNA sequences. They photographed King Cobras from different regions and studied their physical characteristics. They spent years analysing volumes of data and finally arrived at groundbreaking results.
