There are 270 different species of cobra, but just looking at this you will know which is the king cobra!

Just by looking at this type of scale, you will easily recognize which is the king cobra, which is the other species of cobra.

King cobras (scientific name is Ophiophagus hannah) although called cobras, they are not true cobras (genus Naja) with 270 different species, but are (only) members of the genus Ophiophagus.

Therefore, between the king cobra and other cobra species such as the Chinese cobra, the ground cobra, the Indochinese spitting cobra, etc., there are still distinct features that you can easily see just by looking at them. distinguish the king cobra from other cobras.

There are many different species of cobra in the world.

This makes a lot of sense to snake experts because just by looking at these features, they can immediately distinguish whether it is a king cobra or a common cobra. For example, they only see the head of a snake sticking out in the bush or look at a photo taken with only the head.

Readers can see more ways to distinguish king cobras and common cobras here.

This article will provide another way of distinguishing that just by looking at the head, we can immediately distinguish which is the head of a king cobra.

Occipital scales - large scales on the top of the head only found in king cobras

The occipital scales are the extended scales behind the parietal scales, see the figure below:

Scales of the snake's head.

Occipital scales are found only in king cobras.

Occipital scales (orange scales).

Therefore, to distinguish the king cobra, snake experts can look at the position of the occipital scales above. If the snake has these two large scales then it is a king cobra and vice versa. If not present, it is the common cobra or another species of snake.

The head of a king rat snake (scientific name: Elaphe carinata) is quite similar to the head of a king cobra but without the occipital scales.

In addition to looking at the occipital scale, the king cobra also has a feature located in the head region that is very different from other cobra species, which is the cuneate scale. 

Specifically, the king cobra does not have wedge scales located in the lower mouth, while other cobras do.

Wedge scale location.

So to distinguish a king cobra, in addition to ways like looking at the size, neck, the pattern behind the neck when the cobra comes out. we can also look at these two scales to recognize know fast.