King cobra split into four recognised species

Tetzoo Quizzer said:
More accurately, it has been proposed to be split into four species; it is now down to other Herpetologists to decide whether to accept this new classification.
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This paper has been coming for a very long time (I first heard about the work being undertaken to demonstrate the validity of the split over a decade ago, and it wasn't new then) and from all I know is pretty solid - the only surprise is that the split has only declared four species rather than the six originally proposed!
 
Sicarius said:
Both Ophiophagus hannah from Indochina & O. bungarus from Malaysia & Indonesia are commonly kept in captivity. It's also suspected that more species from the latter region will be split in the near future.
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How can they be told apart?
 
The ones I typically see kept in captivity are Indian, Chinese Banded, Indonsesian, and Malaysian King Cobras, so if I am understanding this right, Indian and Chinese Banded King Cobras are still O. hannah and Malaysians and Indonesians are O. bungarus and then two more species from the western ghats and Luzon are described(are these kept in captivity?)
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
The ones I typically see kept in captivity are Indian, Chinese Banded, Indonsesian, and Malaysian King Cobras, so if I am understanding this right, Indian and Chinese Banded King Cobras are still O. hannah and Malaysians and Indonesians are O. bungarus and then two more species from the western ghats and Luzon are described(are these kept in captivity?)
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There are very few Philippine king cobras around, I have yet to determine if these originate from Luzon. No western ghats kings, as far as I know.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
This paper has been coming for a very long time (I first heard about the work being undertaken to demonstrate the validity of the split over a decade ago, and it wasn't new then) and from all I know is pretty solid - the only surprise is that the split has only declared four species rather than the six originally proposed!
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True. I am glad a scientific paper on these 4 species has come through now. I am surprised too not the original 6 or more have been proposed. More research ... perhaps?
 
Sicarius said:
Both Ophiophagus hannah from Indochina & O. bungarus from Malaysia & Indonesia are commonly kept in captivity. It's also suspected that more species from the latter region will be split in the near future.
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Not from what I've heard,yes splits of these two species are expected at some point, but without anyone currently doing any work in situ or ex situ nothing will happen
 
Sicarius said:
There are very few Philippine king cobras around, I have yet to determine if these originate from Luzon. No western ghats kings, as far as I know.
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No Luzon or western ghats ones outside of their native ranges, that I know of and I've seen a lot of king's but not either of these, your best chance of seeing either of them is to travel to their native ranges.
 
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