What Makes A Snake King?

“What makes these cobras kings is not just their size, or their deadliness — after all, they don’t eat humans or elephants — it is that they eat other snakes. Even deadly snakes like kraits or other cobras are prey. These snakes bite when attacked, of course, which raises the question: How does the king cobra maintain such an apparently high-risk lifestyle?” “…a bit like Shakespearean dramas, where the one best able to carry out or to thwart poisonous schemes winds up becoming king. Snakes in general, let alone cobras, will never be much loved by humans, but these animals are so extraordinary.”