Most intelligent snakes in the world

 

Perhaps the most intelligent of snakes, the King cobra. King cobras exhibit behavior that puts at the top of the intelligence ladder in snakes. 

They are one of few snakes to exhibit parental care, the female builds the nest and then she guards her clutch aggressively up to 77 days. They use strategy when hunting, they’ll approach each prey item in a way that’s appropriate for that specific situation and will display an array of methods with which to strike. 

King cobras are one of few snakes in captivity that can recognise their owner, one of the ways that king cobras recognise their handlers is through scent. They’ll begin to recognise the scent of who provides for them and handles them, and king cobras are evolved enough to relax when they’ve detected their human. 

King cobras are capable of remembering previous events, for example a scientist in the 50s noted that king cobras with excess eye scales that underwent a procedure to remove those scales were cooperative after a few times of undergoing the process. They would make it easy to be clamped down by putting themselves in the proper position as if they understood they were being helped.

In captivity they’re intelligent enough to be able to signal when they’re ok with being handled, and they can tell the difference between cleaning time, enrichment, and feedings when their vivarium is disturbed