hey guys,

Nikhil just informed me today about his new paper... it has been submitted in september 2007 already and is finally out now...
the full paper can be submitted by me, in case you are interested - just email please!


cheers
Mario




Russian Journal of Herpetology Vol. 16, No. 1, 2009, pp. 1 – 5

ECDYSIS IN THE KING COBRA (Ophiophagus hannah)

P. Gowri Shankar and Nikhil Whitaker


Between April 2001 and February 2003, ecdysis of snakes in captive population of Ophiophagus hannah was
studied. A strong relationship was observed between snake total length and slough length, resulting in a regression
equation that may be used to predict total length from slough length. The number of sloughs per snake increased
with total feed weight, and average monthly feed weight. Inter-slough periods differed between sexes,
with females shedding at wider intervals at an average of 63.27 days, and males at 55.77 days. In a year, males
shed at an average of 6.0 times, while females averaged 5.2 times. Cumulative difference in inter-sloughing periods
between the fifth and sixth year of age were significant, averaging 59.54 days at the former age, and 61.65 at
the later. No relationship was observed between either average minimum temperature or maximum temperature
and the number of snakes sloughing a month. Rainfall did not influence the number of snakes that shed in a given
month. Average inter-slough period was weakly related to average minimum temperatures, and unrelated to
average maximum temperatures.

Keywords: Ophiophagus hannah, ecdysis, age differences, influence of temperature.