The snake is a venomous, cold-blooded, and vicious reptile belonging to the class reptilia of the family Pythonidae. There are many contrasting types of snakes found in the world.
Coral and King Snake are the two dissimilar varieties of snakes widely found on the earth. Both Coral and Kingsnake are extremely alike in origins and behaviour, yet they are different from each other.
Key Takeaways
- Coral snakes are venomous, with bright color patterns as a warning sign.
- King snakes are nonvenomous, but their coloration mimics that of coral snakes for protection.
- King snakes are immune to coral snake venom and may prey on them.
Coral vs King Snake
Coral Snakes have a red, yellow, and black band of separation on their skin. King Snakes are seen in completely black and red color or black, yellow, and white bands of separation. Coral Snakes are minacious and lethal, whereas King Snakes are not minacious and lethal.
Coral Snakes are the most deadly, lethal, toxic, and threatening wild snakes, yet most the Coral Snakes are harmless to humans and can be kept at home.
Coral Snake has a unique patterned band with a red, yellow, and black colored physical appearance that makes them noticeable among other different snakes.
King Snake is the largest, non-toxic, non-lethal, and non-venomous snake. Moreover, most King Snake is harmless and human-friendly, and they make a good pet too.
King Snakes are seen in many different colors such as black, red, and a mixture of black, yellow, and white bands are mostly differentiable because of their large size.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Coral Snake | King Snake |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Coral Snake is the most deadly, lethal, toxic, and vicious elapid wild snake. | King Snake is a non-toxic, non-lethal, and non-vicious snake. |
| Size | They are smaller in size. | They have enormously larger in size. |
| Skin Color | Coral Snake is mostly seen in a red, yellow, and black colored band of separation on their skin. | King Snakes is mostly seen in black, red, and bands of separation of black, yellow, and white color on their skin. |
| Poison | They are poisonous and deadly. | They are not poisonous and deadly. |
| Habitat | The coral snake is found as wild snakes and rarely as pets. | King Snake is equally found as wild snakes and pets. |
What is Coral Snake?
Coral Snakes are highly lethal, precarious, toxic, deadly, and extremely venomous wild snakes with small, slender, and light body types.
The Coral Snakes have different variety of groups, such as New World and Old World snakes. The majority of Coral Snakes are found in different parts of Australia, South Africa, North Africa, and Asia.
Coral Snake fits in the class reptilia of the Elapidae family or the cobra family. Coral Snake is commonly known for its highly poisonous nature and unique physical appearance.
The venom of Coral snakes can stay up to 6 to 12 hours before showing any symptoms. The symptoms mainly include nausea, paralysis, and weakness.
Coral Snakes are mostly perceived as small bodies with distinctive red, yellow, and black colored bands of separation on their skin.
Coral Snakes are harmless wild snakes and even make good human-friendly pets when they are controlled from a very young age. Coral Sakes are not very resistant to other snakes’ venoms and cause death.
Coral Snakes have a small fang that mostly does not have fang sheaths.
However, Coral snakes are neurotoxic poisonous snakes whose venom can directly affect the nervous system, heart, and brain, which causes nervous tissue destruction, damage of heart muscles, destruction of brain functions, paralysis, inability to limit muscular movements, and death.
What is King Snake?
King Snakes are not extremely venomous, lethal, and vicious snakes. They are mostly non-venomous wild snakes of the Elapidae family or cobra family.
King Snakes are known for their extremely large body with a length of 10 to 18 feet. The majority of Kingsnakes are found in different parts of North and South Africa, North America, South America, Canada, and Asia.
King Snake is the King of snakes. Moreover, Kingsnakes have high resistance to other snakes’ venom, and it does not affect them severely.
Moreover, they are known as snake eaters and consume small animals, snakes, and rodents.
King Snakes are widely seen with a large body type and skin color of complete black and red color or black, yellow, and white patterned bands of separation on their skin.
King Snakes are harmless snakes that can be kept as pets at home. They are very intelligent and human-friendly snakes. King Snakes interact with humans through body language and are considered very smart snakes.
King Snakes are the only variety of snakes that has to be considered intelligent snake creatures. King Snake does not bite easily until it is provoked. Moreover, they are completely safe to have at home.
Main Differences Between Coral and King Snake
- Coral Snake is a deadly, lethal, toxic, and vicious elapid wild snake, whereas King Snake is a non-toxic, non-lethal, and non-vicious snake.
- Coral Snake is mostly seen in red, yellow, and black colored bands on their skin, whereas King Snakes are seen in black, red, and bands of black, yellow, and white color on their skin.
- The coral snake is found as a wild snake and rarely as pets, whereas King Snake is found as a wild snake, and they make great pets.
- Coral Sakes are not very resistant to other snakes’ venoms and cause death, whereas Kingsnakes have high resistance towards other snakes’ venom.
- Coral Snakes have smaller and lighter body types, whereas King Snakes have large and heavy body types.
- Coral Snakes are deadly and poisonous, whereas King Snakes are not deadly and poisonous.
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/1436584
- https://academic.oup.com/cz/article-abstract/60/1/123/1801030
- https://meridian.allenpress.com/copeia/article-abstract/2003/2/308/258952
- https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-28372-8_31
Last Updated : 09 August, 2023
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Piyush Yadav has spent the past 25 years working as a physicist in the local community. He is a physicist passionate about making science more accessible to our readers. He holds a BSc in Natural Sciences and Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Science. You can read more about him on his bio page.
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