The Australian Reptile Park could soon be home to a few new kings if all things go to plan.
One of the park’s prized King Cobras laid 34 eggs earlier this week, with staff removing the eggs to incubate them.
Curator Liz Vella said this was the biggest clutch staff have ever collected from the snake.
“This snake has bred three times before and 32 of her eggs were viable so they’ll incubate for the next 50 or so days and in that time we’ll work out how many of the snakes we’d like to keep,’’ Ms Vella said.
“We take the eggs because we have a better rate of success with hatchling if we incubate them rather than leave them with the reptile.’‘
King Cobras are the world’s largest venomous snake and so are one of the most feared, one of the reasons why the Reptile Park is eager to keep a few younger ones around.
“I think the King Cobras really have an impact as an educational animal as they are one of the most feared because people don’t know a lot about them other than they’re venomous so we try to break down that fear through education,’’ Ms Vella said.