Chinese Cobra

About the Chinese Cobra

The Chinese cobra (Naja atra), also called the Taiwan cobra, is a species of cobra in the family Elapidae, found mostly in southern China and a couple of neighboring nations and islands. It is one of the most prevalent venomous snakes in China, which has caused many snakebite incidents to humans.

Naja atra was first described by Danish physician, zoologist, and botanist Theodore Edward Cantor in 1842. The generic name naja is a Latinisation of the Sanskrit word nāgá (नाग) meaning "cobra". The specific epithet atra comes from the Latin term ater, which means "dark", "black", or "gloomy".

In Mandarin Chinese, the snake is known as Zhōnghuá yǎnjìngshé (simplified: 中华眼镜蛇, traditional: 中華眼鏡蛇, lit. "Chinese spectacled snake", i.e. Chinese cobra), Zhōushān yǎnjìngshé (舟山眼鏡蛇, lit. "Zhoushan spectacled snake", i.e. Zhoushan cobra) or, in Cantonese, faahnchaántàuh (飯鏟頭, lit. "rice paddle head"). In Taiwanese, the snake is known as pn̄g-sî-chhèng (飯匙倩/銃, lit. "rice paddle ?"), ba̍k-kiàⁿ-chôa (目鏡蛇, lit. "spectacled snake", i.e. cobra), or tn̂g-ām-chôa (長頷蛇, lit. "long-chinned snake").

This medium-sized snake is usually 1.2 to 1.5 metres (3.9 to 4.9 ft... Wikipedia →