Cobras are cannibalistic and when hungry they do not hesitate to prey on their children or siblings.

Female cobras guard their eggs for the entire incubation period of 60 days with dedication and without eating anything. They leave the nest just before the eggs hatch to avoid preying on their babies.


In a rare event, a female cobra starved herself to death than feed on her eggs or her new born snakelings.

A pregnant cobra slipped into a newly built but unused septic tank at a house near Banki in eastern India and laid her eggs inside. The family closed the lid without realizing a snake had built a nest inside and was guarding her eggs.

When they opened the tank again after nearly two months they were shocked to find the place teeming with baby cobras and called the Snake Helpline.

Two volunteers, Lalit Mohan Panda and Durga Madhab Mohapatra, entered the tank and rescued 14 baby cobra babies. They also strikingly found the dead body of the four-feet long mother cobra which had opted to starve rather than feed on her eggs or babies.

Lalit Mohan Panda said "There was no prey inside the septic tank for the snakes to survive. The babies would have died or preyed on each other if we had not rescued them.”

Subhendu Mallik, General Secretary of Snake Helpline said "Cannibalism among cobras is a well documented fact. The mother cobra had every opportunity to eat her babies for her own survival but chose to starve. We cannot conclusively say that she was overcome by motherly emotions, but nature continues to amaze us.”

The cobra babies were later released in a suitable natural habitat.