King cobra has four distinct species, finds new study

A new study has revealed that the world’s longest venomous snake, the king cobra, is not a single species, as previously thought, but rather four genetically distinct species. Led by wildlife biologist P Gowri Shankar, the research involved collaboration between scientists from the UK, Sweden, Malaysia, and India.

The study challenges the long-held belief that, despite visual differences in king cobras across their wide geographic range, they all belong to the same species, Ophiophagus hannah.

King cobra was first described by Danish researcher Theodore Edward Cantor, in 1836 as Hamadryas hannah. In the following year, another species from South East Asia’s Sunda region, was proposed by Hermann Schlegel as Naja bungarus which was later renamed after validation in 2024 as Ophiophagus bungarus.

From 1836, till as late as 1961, many scientists tried unsuccessfully to classify king cobra. Following confusion regarding the species distinction, it was later decided, in 1945, that the king cobra was a monotypic species (with no sub-species), and was named Ophiophagus hannah, explains Gowri Shankar.

Now, after 185 years of uncertainty around its taxonomy, the new study finds both genetic and morphological evidence to prove there is not one, but four distinct species of king cobras, two of which have been named for the first time by the team.

The king cobra...

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