How To Find a King Cobra in Thailand?
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Many people are trying to find a king cobra in Thailand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and elsewhere.
How Do You Find a King Cobra?
When I first got into the hobby eight or so years ago, I thought there was some sort of formula I could use to find snakes I was targeting. This was my mentality back then because I was an addicted kayak fisherman who was on the ocean every weekend and a fair number of weekdays floating around and catching gator trout, snook, redfish, and other amazing species.
I figured catching snakes was just like catching fish. Target them with the right equipment, time, weather, and bait, and I could catch whatever I was focused on.
I’ve since learned that snakes and fish are radically different.
To start with, there are very few snakes you can target and catch repeatedly. Here in Southern Thailand I can usually target a Homalopsis buccata (puff-faced water snake) and have a good chance of catching one because I know where they generally are. Generally.
Sometimes I cannot find them. Where they go is anyone’s guess, maybe to the deeper water during the dry season – because at the moment they are very difficult to find in the shallow pools I’ve been looking in.
Anyway, back to the King Cobra and how to catch one.
There are people who come over to Thailand and are lucky enough to find a snake during their vacation. One fell over a waterfall for a guy who sent me a photo of him standing beside one floating in a pool of water. Then, there’s everybody else.
Finding a king cobra comes down to just two things. Persistence, and luck. That’s it really. You can try to go out during daytime hours, or limited daytime hours. You can go out early evenings only. You can target patches of bamboo.
You can go out during the mating season. You can go out in areas where they are known to have been previously. You can rub captive king cobra feces all over your pants and walk around the forest. To my knowledge, it is only people who are persistent and who get lucky, that will find king cobras.
I’ve found four of them now. I live here in Thailand full-time and I am always looking around for them on the road, in open fields or wherever I am. I go looking for snakes in the forest a couple of times a month on average.
I can’t remember when I found the first one – there are two that were fairly close together. One was on step 357 of 1,200+ steps leading up a mountain at a Buddhist temple. People were screaming and a friend of mine ran down the steps and ran right into me.
Him: Hey Mr. Vern! Snake! You catch snakes, right?
Me: Sure, uhm, what kind of snake?
Him: Cobra! Big!
Me: How big?
Him: I don’t know, 4 meters maybe?
Me: No, I don’t catch 4-meter cobras!
I did however go up and touch the tail and poke it with a stick a couple of times to move it off the steps. It was a real beauty – light brown, yellowish, and in perfect shape. Very strong, and definitely at the top of the reptile food chain in the area.
So, I wasn’t looking for snakes, and there she was – a real mindblower!
The next time was while looking half-heartedly for snakes and standing on a road that goes up a mountain. I was looking one way and turned around in time to see a massive tail of a king cobra disappearing into the thick brush.
I mean massive as in twice the size and thickness of any other king cobra I’d seen at the snake show I used to visit a few times per month. It was ridiculously large. Apparently, it just crossed the road behind me with no fear at all. I was only maybe 10 meters away.
Another time I found one on Penang Hill in Malaysia while running down a forest trail.
The last time, and this was one of the best for sure – was when I was herping with Tom Charlton, and he found one in the early evening as we herped some man-made pools I’d been to over 100 times before.
I’d never seen a king cobra anywhere near there before. Still, there he was – 3 meters of absolute reptile perfection!
Tom had been coming to Thailand and Malaysia for 12 years and hadn’t found a king cobra before last week. They are NOT an easy species to target. You probably shouldn’t pay for a herping trip – a wildlife tour that promises to find you a king.
In Indonesia they are actually promising you can find a wild king, but they’re putting them in bags and releasing them in front of the tourists that just paid stacks of cash to see one in the wild. It’s nuts!
There are two parts to the equation for finding kings – persistence and luck. Really, only luck is necessary – you don’t even have to go looking for king cobras to find them. You just need a lot of luck!
Good luck to you!
[Image at top ©Vern Lovic]
very interesting comment on the Indo snake tours…the free they do on those with inexperienced tourists makes me wince…
It’s ridiculous – a total scam. Too many people know at this point, they are running a shit-service, apparently.
Waoo…It was nice to read this article and such a valuable information that you have shared with us..And I am totally agree with you Mr.Vern its such a hard to find out a king cobra and of course also very hard to capture a king because only the one bite of the king can push any one into the velly of the death
I live in Sukhothai Thailand & saw a very long snake in my yard. Scared me for sure!! It was early evening, looked about olive greenish, round black eyes & mamba type smile. Any clues? I am in a farming area. I have several ponds also……it’s been 4 days & he was spotted 3 times.
I replied at your other comment – please answer those questions. This page: https://thailandsnakes.com/snake-photo-submissions/#comment-791301
I live in Koh Samui. A while back a friend was going into his bedroom at home with his cat running in front of him. Suddenly the cat froze, starting hissing and backed out of the room. My friend looked around then under the bed and saw a large snake. He immediately called the local Samui snake man who came over right away and he was delighted (far more than my friend was) to find that the snake was a large, adult King Cobra. Snake guy promised to take the snake up into the hills and release it.
Since then I have been a bit wary of going into various rooms in my house and always send the cat in first. (poor thing)
David
haha! A king cobra under the bed? That’s nuts… Koh Samui seems to have a real problem with this deadly snake.
Cheers!
Just saw a king cobra last week–certainly was NOT seeking to, but I was bamboo rafting on some small segment of jungle river in Phang Nga…it was only about 5 feet away from our raft-uncomfortably close. The snake was about 10 feet long and the locals said they had spotted this guy 2 other times recently. I was terrified and so was my guide, but someone else may have liked it!
Nice. Get a photo?
Back in the early 1990’s on Koh Samui had a close up of a Cobra, had a frog in it’s mouth. It was in Chaweng Noi a small hotel on the small beach there.
But it took off down the path and the boy working there used a sling shot and killed it on the second shot as it was rearing up. Sad!
Now only ever see green tree snakes, almost stepped on one of those a few years ago on Lamai. And just last week I heard a noisy minor on the beach south lamai sqawking at a green snake – ended up in The Gulf Of Thailand- the snake that is. I have in the past been in deep bush in Australia so as long as you leave a snake alone and don’t move no problems. Always look where your walking . As I wasn’t when I walked Lamai Inn 99 and almost stepped on a green snake. lucky locals alerted me.
Thanks for the note Ian…
My maid saw a king cobra in my kitchen one day. I’ve seen a few snakes, but nothing serious here in northern Thailand. One friend however, getting bamboo shoots for dinner in the hills got bit by a cobra; machete already in hand he swiftly chopped off the head, wrapped his arm in a tourniquet, got on his scooter, threw the snake to his wife for dinner and zoomed on to the hospital, was treated and had cobra for dinner.
Another friend across the border in Myanmar was prospecting and came across a 5 meter python that began to attack him. Fortunately he was armed and blew its head away 1 meter away – or less and closing.