The New Indian Express

Mangalore, Apr 26: As it is Rani’s first pregnancy there is an equal measure of ecstasy and apprehension in the air.

Even Nagaraja, the largest king cobra in captivity in the country (14.3 ft), keeps a safe distance and occasionally helps in pilling leaves into a big heap that would soon double as a nest to accommodate Rani’s eggs.

After a five-year long wait, the first breeding cycle of king cobras that will start by the end of the month has made the caretakers of Pilikula Biological Park at Moodshedde on city’s outskirts happy.

The king cobras introduced into the captive enclosure at Pilikula Nisargadhama in 2001 increased from two to five reptiles by 2004. After successive attempts aiming at captive breeding did not yield expected results, the management roped in American herpetologist Romolus Whittaker.

Impressed by Whittaker’s credentials (he set up Madras Snake Park in 1970s) the management signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in February 2004 to start the country’s first scientific, captive breeding centre for king cobras at Pilikula Biological Park.

The breeding centers which received a financial assistance of Rs 2 lac from Karnataka Bank filed to achieve its objective. With Whittaker washing off his hands of the centre, the management left with no option patiently waited for nature to take its own course.
“We observed that first signs of breeding cycle when the reptiles being spending more time together in the nest they built.” Explains the park director Jayaprakash Bhandary and adds that they have no intention of taking help from ‘outside’ experts.

According to an expert on reptiles Dr Ravindranath Aithal the breeding cycle would be between 90 and 120 days. King cobras lay 20 to 60 eggs at a time. And the eggs take more than 60 days to hatch. During this time, the king cobra hardly ventures out of its nest.

The caretakers, in order to ensure ‘privacy’ to the king cobras have provided ‘captive pan’ enclosures and have barred visitors from entering the enclosure.