Speed of a king cobra

[The Snark]

From an email I just received:

"Hey speak of snakes. We were park on the verge when a cobra a little long than my truck pass us following the road. We start up and the snake speed up. We follow for maybe 200 meter doing 20 kmh. Then we got to close and it about doubled the speed before going off the side."

Important safety tip. You aren't going to outrun a king cobra on foot.

 

[donniedark0]

wow. Cant imagine living in the same area as those.

 

[Shrike]

No doubt they're fast, but doubling to 24 mph seems like a bit of a stretch. To put this in perspective, Usain Bolt's average speed over a 200 is about 24 mph. I've heard the black mamba takes the prize for world's fastest snake. According to the ever reliable Wikipedia, they can go 10-12 mph.

I'll tell you this, if a king cobra hoods up in front of me on a lonely trail in Thailand, I'm going to outrun it :biggrin:

 

[The Snark]

And assuming his 35 year old Landrover-Toyota's speedo is anywhere near accurate. I'd guess it was cruising at 12 mph and cranked it up to around 18 in a spurt. I've no experience with the Mamba but I've seen Hannah do better than 12 on many occasions. I find the <12 comical