Reptilia · Squamata
Walterinnesia aegyptiaLataste, 1887
Desert Cobra
Photograph by Dominic, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 140 cm nose to tail.
Also called Black Desert Cobra.
Reptilia › Squamata › Elapidae › Walterinnesia
- Grows to
- 1400mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 11.3years
Longer than 76% of all elapid snakes anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 219 to 5,710 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
37 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2012
- Population trend
- Decreasing
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 11.3years
Bar et al. 2021 (11 years and 3 months in captivity)
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 810mm2 ft 8 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1400mm4 ft 7 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 177.5mm7 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 215mm8.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 567.2g1.3 lb
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 386.8g13.6 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 6.1g0.22 oz
snakes only in this source
1400 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), 850-1200 (Eid 2021), 215-1270 mm total length, 0.6-1050 g (Bar et al. 2021; 0.6 g is probably wrong, it is based on erraneous SMNH datum), 1035 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, mean female SVL 896.3 mm, SMNH Aug 2023, n = 16, 2 smallest individuals 175, 180 mm SVL, but the 175 mm weighs 7.3 g, smallest mass is 4.8, so I take 6.05 as hatchling mass), 80-132 cm (Trape 2023), Spawls et al. 2023 (80-130 cm, hatchlings 20-35 cm)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Lowest it lives · above sea level
- 500m
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1200m
- Range size
- 242,221km²
snakes, lizards and amphibians (Eid 2021), toads and diurnal reptiles (Bar et al. 2021), especially toads, also lizards, snakes, rodents and birds (Trape 2023)
active (inferred from Bar et al. 2021: hunts reptiles as they are sleeping in their burrows)
(O'Shea 2018, Eid 2021, Bar et al. 2021, Trape 2023), largely nocturnal (Spawls et al. 2023)
mostly terrestrial (Bar et al. 2021), terrestrial (Trape 2023, Spawls et al. 2023)
500-1200 (O'Shea 2018), 0-1200 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 13.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–20eggs
- Mean clutch
- 13.5eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
mean 13.5 (Scharf et al. 2015), 3-20 (Bar et al. 2021), 2-20 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Lataste
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1887
- Type locality
- Egypt
Keeping one
4 ft 7 in × 2 ft 4 in × 3 ft 5 in(140 × 70 × 105 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own total length of 4 ft 7 in (1400 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Desert Cobra. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
55kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 567 g, the heaviest recorded for Desert Cobra — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Elapidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Walterinnesia aegyptia. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/walterinnesia-aegyptia
@misc{walterinnesia_aegyptia_2026,
title = {Walterinnesia aegyptia},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/walterinnesia-aegyptia}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.