Who Would Win this Deadly Fight?
The King Cobra is known as the most poisonous snake in the world, and one bite from this sneaky animal can easily kill a person.
The scientific name of this reptile is Ophiophagus Hannah, where Ophiophagus means ‘snake eating’ in Greek while Hannah refers to a Greek myth regarding tree-dwelling fairies.
On the other hand, the Komodo dragon is a massive Indonesian lizard that’s known for its ravenous appetite. They have sharp teeth, a mouth filled with venom, and a strong sense of smell. Plus, they are considered the largest lizard species that currently roam the earth. The name ‘Komodo’ refers to a dragon-like creature, which was believed to exist on the Komodo island of Indonesia.
Size And Description
An adult King cobra is black, brown, yellow, or green. They also come with white or yellow-colored chevrons or crossbars, while their throat is creamy yellow-colored. This fierce reptile is known to be aggressive due to its long length and big size. Its fangs alone are 8 – 10 mm (0.5 inches) long. The length of the fangs is short since they are fixed to the cobra’s upper jaw. Longer fangs would penetrate through its lower mouth. When it comes to their size, they are 3 – 3.6 m (10 – 12 feet), but they can reach up to 5.4 m (18 feet.)
On the other hand, the Komodo dragon is known to be the heaviest and largest lizard in the world. They have a long, yellow-colored, forked tongue and sixty serrated teeth within their mouth. Their bite is poisonous. The tails of these dragons are as long as their bodies. The skin of the Komodo dragon is colored grey and covered by armored scales. These scales consist of tiny bones known as osteoderms, whose function is to act as natural chained armor. As the Komodo dragon gets older, these osteoderms spread out and change shape causing it to harden more as the lizard ages.
They weigh around 70 kg (154 pounds). The biggest Komodo dragon ever recorded was around 166 kg (366 pounds) and 3.13 m (10.3 feet) in length. The male dragons are bulkier as compared to their female counterparts.
Habitat
When talking about their location, the King cobra snake can usually be found in southern China, India, and Southeast Asia. Their natural habitat consists of bamboo thickets, forests, swamps, and streams. They prefer to reside in warm and humid climates. They can be found in trees trying to blend in with the leaf-filled branches. Sometimes they would hang down from a branch they were sitting on to catch another snake. The King cobra is a decent swimmer and can easily move along in the water. In colder temperatures, these reptiles migrate to their dens to keep warm.
Alternatively, the Komodo dragons can be found on a couple of Indonesian islands such as the Lesser Sunda group, Padar, Rintja, Flores, and the island of Komodo of course, which is the area with the largest population. They prefer to reside in tropical savannah forests and open lowland locations with tall bushes and grasses. However, they can also survive in other habitats such as ridge tops, dry riverbeds, and beaches.
Diet
Whenever they are in danger, the King cobra hisses and flattens its neck ribs by turning it into a hood. To see over tall grass and bushes, it takes an upright position without extending its hood. Their bite is filled with venom, which gets released from the glands that are attached to their fangs. Once they bite their prey, in just a few short minutes the neurotoxins shock their nervous system, particularly their ability to breathe. The diet of the King cobra consists of cold-blooded animals, especially other snakes. They feed on large harmless species of snakes like pythons, dhamans, and Asian rat snakes. This also includes other snakes such as kraits, small king cobras, and other poisonous Indian cobras.
The diet of the Komodo dragons mostly consists of carrion. These carnivorous reptiles hunt other prey as well such as mammals, birds, and invertebrates. To hunt prey that’s far away, these reptiles would stand on their back legs and use their tails as support. Moreover, they have been known to attack pigs and large deer by using their tails. They eat by breaking apart large pieces of flesh and swallowing them as they hold the carcass down using their forelegs.
Due to their very slow metabolism, bigger Komodo dragons can only consume twelve meals in a year. Also, they don’t have a diaphragm, hence these dragons cannot use their tongue to suck water to drink it. Instead, they take a mouthful of water and drink it by lifting their head and letting it run down their throat.
Behavior
Despite popular beliefs, the king cobra is a shy creature. They prefer to stay away from people and other animals and are known to be solitary reptiles. During the breeding season, however, these snakes can be found in groups known as a quiver. According to some people, the hissing sound of a king cobra is similar to the growl of a dog.
On the other hand, the Komodo dragon spends its early years in the trees to stay safe from other predators, particularly other adult Komodo dragons. During the night, they sleep in burrows that they dig. Moreover, they are considered to be very good swimmers and they use this ability to escape from predators. Also, they use different vocalizations, particularly a hiss, for various purposes such as during attacks, as a defense signal, during feeding, and by the females when they are mating.
So, what will happen when a king cobra comes face to face with a Komodo dragon in a fight? Who would win in this situation?
There is no definite answer to this question since these animals’ geographic ranges don’t overlap. Can the Komodo dragon hunt down and eat the king cobra? It’s possible if it can avoid getting bitten first. Also, the Komodo dragon has extremely tough skin, hence if it does get bitten by the king cobra, there is a chance that its venom won’t properly spread throughout the dragon’s body.
Furthermore, the Komodo dragon is immune to the venom of the king cobra. Why is that? The Komodo dragons and monitor lizards are related to each other. Hence, monitor lizards are said to have a high tolerance level when it comes to cobra venom. So if a Komodo dragon does attack a cobra, with all of its abilities mentioned here, it is highly likely that the Komodo dragon is going to win.
On the other hand, if the Komodo dragon did not have the above-mentioned abilities, then the cobra’s venomous bite would kill it since this snake has enough venom to kill an animal of that size. However, even if the Komodo dragon surrendered to the snake’s venom, it would still have a lot of time to kill and eat the snake. In this scenario, both of the animals would end up dead.
Furthermore, there was a video where a viper bit a Komodo dragon, and nothing happened to the lizard. Even though both of these reptiles live in different places, there are areas where monitor lizards and cobras coexist. Those monitor lizards have no problem hunting down and eating the cobras, even if they get bit in the process. Hence, a viper’s bite won’t have any effect on the Komodo dragon.
In conclusion, the Komodo dragon is pretty much immune to the king cobra’s bite and is considered to be the biggest monitor lizard in the world. Hence, a fight between the Komodo dragon and the king cobra would result in the dragon being the ultimate victor.