Egyptian Cobra

Naja haje

Cobra égyptien·الكوبرا المصرية

Conservation status:LC(global)·VU(Morocco)
Population trend:Decreasing
Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje), Morocco

A powerful symbol of Moroccan biodiversity, the Egyptian Cobra is one of the most iconic and impressive snakes of the Maghreb. As a top predator, it plays a vital role in maintaining ecological balance by controlling rodent populations. Yet this once widespread species is now in sharp decline. It faces serious threats from habitat degradation, targeted captures by snake charmers, and widespread fear that often leads to persecution. Now a striking emblem of the growing tensions between human communities and wildlife, Naja haje highlights the urgent need for thoughtful and effective conservation efforts.

The Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje) is the only elapid in Morocco and one of the largest snakes in the country. Moroccan specimens are usually said not to exceed 160 cm in total length5, though the largest measured reached 208 cm2. The body is long, cylindrical and evenly proportioned. The head is large but only weakly set off from the neck, with a rounded snout, a small dark eye and a round pupil15.

The dentition is proteroglyphous, with two fangs fixed at the front of the upper jaw rather than hinged15. Dorsal scales are smooth. A row of subocular scales cutting the eye off from the upper labials separates the whole Naja haje complex from every other cobra22.

Adults in Morocco are usually uniform glossy black above and below, sometimes with a whitish throat22 (pers. obs.). Some individuals, however, keep bronze highlights along the flanks, and occasionally sharply defined pale-bronze spots scattered over the body (pers. obs.). Hatchlings are pale yellow with brown speckling, with the head, neck and forebody glossy black. The black then spreads backwards with age until it covers the whole animal, yellow persisting longest on the lower dorsal scales next to the ventrals15.

Moroccan cobras stand out from Naja haje elsewhere in the range: Egyptian adults, for example, are yellowish-green to greyish3. It is this contrast that the subspecies legionis was built on. The black is not exclusive to Morocco, though, since animals from northern Cameroon and Algeria are described as superficially similar22 (pers. comm.), and it is now treated as a colour morph rather than a taxon (see Taxonomy).

Egyptian Cobras (Naja haje) from Morocco showing phenotypic variation
Egyptian Cobras (Naja haje), showing the limited phenotypic variability of the species in Morocco, apart from the chin, which is sometimes white and sometimes dark.

Moroccan cobras were treated as a distinct subspecies for twenty years. Valverde described Naja haje legionis in 1989 for the Moroccan animals, on three grounds: their colouration, their scalation, and their presumed genetic isolation from the rest of the range23.

A 2009 revision of the complex rejected all three. A Moroccan animal sequenced fell inside the North African clade alongside samples from Egypt, central Niger and northern Nigeria. The morphometric analysis placed the Moroccan specimens among the rest of Naja haje with no separation, and given how variable colour and pattern are across the species, the differences Valverde had used were not judged sufficient. Naja haje legionis was accordingly synonymised with Naja haje22. The same study raised the Arabian populations to Naja arabica and described the West African savanna populations as Naja senegalensis, so the Moroccan animals now remain in a narrower Naja haje than before.

That conclusion rests only on a single sequenced individual, two measured specimens in the morphometric dataset, and mitochondrial markers only, with no nuclear data22 and could be challenged in the future. The global IUCN assessment states that the North African populations may be taxonomically distinct and that further research is needed to settle the systematics of the species (pers. comm.)25. Meanwhile the name has not gone away in practice. Many authors and scientists still refer to Naja haje legionis when speaking about Moroccan animals6716 (pers. comm.).

In Morocco the Egyptian Cobra can be confused with the Montpellier Snake (Malpolon monspessulanus), another large dark snake. The Montpellier Snake, however, is never entirely black: whitish or beige spots always gather towards the rear of the body, and only the cobra is a uniform glossy black. Its iris is greyish and clearly visible, whereas the cobra’s is black and blends into the eye.

The African House Snake (Boaedon fuliginosus) also occurs in parts of the cobra’s Moroccan range. Both have a dark dorsum, but the belly is fully white in the African House Snake, whereas in the cobra only the chin might be pale.

Adult Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje) and Montpellier Snake (Malpolon monspessulanus) of the same size compared, showing coloration and the orange eye ring
Comparison between an adult Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje) and a Montpellier Snake (Malpolon monspessulanus) of the same size. Coloration is usually enough to tell them apart, but it is the orange ring around the pupil that confirms any identification.
Head scales of an Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje) and an African House Snake (Boaedon fuliginosus) seen from above
Comparison of the head scalation between an Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje), left, and an African House Snake (Boaedon fuliginosus), right.
Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje) and African House Snake (Boaedon fuliginosus) compared, showing belly colour and eye
Comparison between the Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje) and the African House Snake (Boaedon fuliginosus), the latter with a pale belly and a vertical pupil, more clearly visible than the cobra's.
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Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje) range map in Morocco
Distribution of Naja haje in Morocco.About this map

These distribution maps are produced by Fauna Morocco. Ranges are shown as estimates based on published records and our own field observations. They are updated when new data become available. Check out the references used for this map.

The Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje) ranges from the southern desert plains of Morocco through the southern Moroccan mountains, northern Algeria and central Tunisia to northern Libya and northern Egypt. From there it follows the Nile at least as far as Sennar in Sudan. South of the Sahara it occupies the Sahelian and Sudanian belt from Niger and Nigeria east through Chad, Cameroon and Sudan to Uganda and western Kenya, with a separate subpopulation in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya and records in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and northern Somalia25. The Arabian and West African savanna populations formerly included in the species were separated as the Arabian cobra (Naja arabica) and the Senegalese cobra (Naja senegalensis) in 200922.

In Morocco the species is distributed mainly across the arid and Saharan bioclimatic zones with warm or temperate winters1. It occupies the southern half of the country, from the Souss and the Agadir region south along the Atlantic belt to Laayoune, inland through Ouarzazate, and eastwards along the southern flank of the Anti-Atlas as far as Figuig52522. The distribution of snake hunting closely matches the regions with the highest densities of cobras, with hunters active in the Middle and Lower Drâa, the Souss valley, the Guelmim region and occasionally the Tafilalt18.

The northern edge of the range appears to be retreating. Between 1989 and 2014, the mean centre of the snake hunting grounds moved roughly 96 km to the south-west, hunters largely abandoning the Souss valley in favour of the Lower Drâa. This was read as a decline in the northern populations rather than as a change in hunting practice18. A few isolated populations probably persist in eastern Morocco and further north along the coast (pers. comm.). No elevation range has been published for the Moroccan population. On the known localities we estimate it at 0 to 1,600 m (pers. obs.).

In Morocco, the species occurs in semi-desert habitat, such as the Euphorbia scrub coast between Guelmim and Sidi-Ifni, oueds, oases, grassy areas. It will use woodland but is never found in forest321235.

The one consistent requirement is rodents, and through them vegetation. In the Saharan part of the range the species is closely linked to patches carrying enough vegetation to support the fat sand rat (Psammomys obesus), which itself occurs only in strips along the river beds18. The practical consequence is a linear, patchy occupancy along watercourses and irrigated ground in an otherwise empty landscape. Snake hunters describe the productive ground in the same terms: loose rather than compacted substrate, dense fields of fat sand rat or Barbary ground squirrel (Atlantoxerus getulus) burrows, and the ecotones (biome transition) where dune sand meets earth, along oued margins and roadsides where the substrate has been disturbed and colonised by rodents15.

Shelter is taken in those same burrow systems. Adults are reported to hold a home area over several years and to use a set of nearby refuges, including watercourse banks and abandoned mammal burrows, where they also thermoregulate19.

Habitat south of Agadir, Egyptian Cobra habitat
Habitat south of Agadir, a region where the species appears to have become much scarcer.
Edge of an oasis near Ouarzazate, Egyptian Cobra habitat
Habitat around Ouarzazate, where the Egyptian Cobra is found along the edges of oases.
Euphorbia hills and river beds between Guelmim and Sidi Ifni
Habitat between Guelmim and Sidi Ifni, between euphorbia rich hills and river beds.
Euphorbia habitat around Guelmim
Typical habitat around Guelmim, made up of euphorbias.

No dietary study has been carried out on the Egyptian Cobra in Morocco. Across the range the diet is broad: frogs and toads, small mammals, eggs and other snakes, along with chickens taken around settlements2119. Prey is found by active searching rather than ambush19. Rodents are described as the predominant prey, which is why the species is thought to be exposed to secondary poisoning where rodenticides are used25.

For Morocco the working assumption in the literature is that the fat sand rat supplies most of the adult diet. That is an inference from habitat rather than from prey remains: the argument is that the species is restricted to the vegetated patches where the fat sand rat (Psammomys obesus) occurs, and that the hunters who know the animal best find it by working those burrow fields18. Egyptian Cobras have also been recorded eating other snakes in Tunisia9, and ophiophagy was confirmed to us by a snake hunter and charmer in southern Morocco (pers. comm.)

Amphibians are worth considering as prey items despite the aridity, since they head the list in the range-wide accounts. Moroccan oueds and irrigated ground hold Moorish Toads (Sclerophrys mauritanica) and Sahara frogs (Pelophylax saharicus) in quantity, and an actively foraging cobra working the same wet strips would be expected to encounter them (pers. comm.).

The Egyptian Cobra is described as mainly crepuscular3 but can be found basking in the morning and active throughout the day (pers. obs.). It moves fast for a large snake, and has been recorded climbing trees19. Nothing has been published on activity temperatures, home range size or seasonal movements in Morocco. The snake hunting season runs from April to October18, which might reflect the activity peak of the cobras, but also the hunters’.

A behavioural signature of the species in Morocco is the trail it leaves: on loose substrate the tracks are conspicuous enough that experienced hunters tell them from any other snake15.

The defensive signal sequence of the Egyptian Cobra is predictable as it increases in intensity following a more or less fixed pattern. A cobra that detects a threat first attempts to leave, or to stay still and go unnoticed. If pressed, it raises the front third of the body vertically and spreads its hood, flattening the neck by swinging the ribs outwards, which both signals and enlarges the apparent size of the animal. If the display fails it opens the mouth, showing the bluish-white lining, and performs mock strikes, lunging forwards while keeping the mouth shut. If the threat persists despite the full display, the cobra finally bites, with or without injecting venom15 (pers. obs.).

The display is effective against most predators and counterproductive against people. A raised, hooded cobra is unmistakable, stationary and at eye level, and the standard outcome is that the animal is stoned, beaten or, in the collecting grounds, captured.

The Egyptian Cobra is the only elapid in Morocco, and the only Moroccan snake whose bite produces a neurotoxic (targeting nerve cells) rather than a haemorrhagic (provoking internal bleeding) syndrome. The clinical syndrome is one of visual disturbance, spreading paralysis and respiratory failure, with swelling and pain at the bite site itself. These symptoms can lead to a rapid death824.

Moroccan cobra venom is dominated by very small proteins, which include both the neurotoxins that block nerve signals to muscle and the cytotoxins that destroy cells directly1416. The consequence is that the venom acts fast. In experimental envenomation, the venom reaches the bloodstream almost completely whichever route it is given by, and signs appear within minutes14.

Where the venom is collected matters, as geographical variation in its components can be important. Venom from Egyptian animals causes bleeding into the organs but venom from Moroccan animals does not, and is neurotoxic instead14. Moroccan cobra venom nonetheless spreads across every vital organ: fluid and inflammatory cells in the brain, dysfunction of the heart muscle with fluid between the fibres, thickened air sacs and fluid in the lungs, swollen liver cells, and severe swelling and congestion in the kidney14, in addition to the neurotoxic effects listed above.

Treatment is the weak point. Morocco produced its own antivenom until 2002. Since 2016 the only product available in the country has been Inoserp-MENA, whose stated coverage includes this species8. An experimental antivenom raised against Moroccan cobras was four times more effective at preventing death than the commercial product and neutralised roughly four times as much venom per unit volume. On tissue damage the gap was even wider. The experimental antivenom mostly cleared the effects of the venom, while the commercial product left congestion, fluid and liver-cell damage in place14. A cobra-specific antivenom for Morocco has been called for on the strength of these results14.

In practice, bites are very rare. Almost all recorded cobra accidents in Morocco involve snake charmers handling the animals in Jemaa el-Fna in Marrakech8. In any case, the animal should not be handled, as a bite can lead to a quick death24

Predation on adult Egyptian Cobras is likely to be limited by size. The short-toed eagle (Circaetus gallicus) is the specialist snake predator of the region, but the largest cobras taken by hunters exceed the maximum prey size recorded for it11. No case of predated cobras in Morocco has been documented.

The Egyptian Cobra is oviparous. Precise data is lacking for Morocco but is available for Egyptian animals.

Sexual maturity is reached at around 27 months19. In the early summer, females lay their eggs in loose sand, abandoned rodent burrows or under rocks, 60 to 100 days after mating19. Clutches consist of 8 to 22 eggs, rarely up to 30. Each clutch contains two or three infertile eggs. The eggs are white and measure roughly 45 to 55 mm by 30 to 36 mm1225. Incubated at a constant 30 °C, the eggs hatched after 51 to 54 days, and hatchlings measure from 20 to 40 cm in total length12. The incubation period and the laying period match with captive observations of Moroccan cobras (pers. obs.). The venom apparatus is assembled before the animal leaves the egg, so hatchlings are venomous from the moment they emerge13.

No longevity estimate exists for the Moroccan population, in the wild or in captivity. The maximum for the species is 22 years in captivity20. Wild animals will fall well short of it. Moroccan cobras face poaching that removes the largest individuals from the population every year, which truncates the age structure from the top.

Globally the species is assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN with a decreasing population, on the grounds that it is widespread, highly adaptable and subject only to localised threats from collection, habitat degradation and pesticide use. The assessors nonetheless record that it was formerly common in the Mediterranean region and is now very rare there, and that declines across much of the north of the range may warrant specific conservation action25. Two things limit how much weight that assessment can carry for Morocco. The assessment date is July 2012, so it predates all the quantitative work on the Moroccan harvest, and its Moroccan content is thin. At the national level, the species is listed as Vulnerable, on a population reduction driven by declining habitat quality and by exploitation17.

Collection for snake charming is the dominant threat, and this is the species the trade is built around. Snake hunters are estimated to take about 727 Egyptian Cobras a year in Morocco, against about 310 exhibited annually by charmers. This shortfall of more than 400 animals is attributed to mortality in transport and captivity, to illegal trade, and to sales to the antivenom laboratories18. The species is the scarcest in the wild and the most expensive in the trade between hunters and charmers18. A large specimen can fetch more than 100 USD, and according to a local snake hunter, prices have risen substantially in the last decade, a sign of the growing effort needed to find one in the wild (pers. comm.). In addition, the hunting grounds moved about 96 km south-west over the same interval, away from Marrakech and into less accessible country, which hunters would not do if the northern ground still produced. Older hunters report fewer snakes and more competitors than before18.

The way the harvest works makes it worse than the raw numbers suggest, as hunters take the largest, most striking animals. The cobras measured in the charmers' possession averaged 136 cm snout to vent against 87 cm for the animals found randomly in the wild. The sex ratio among harvested animals is even, which means gravid females are not being released, contrary to what hunters say18.

Four further pressures act on the population.

  • Direct killing is a major threat for all snakes, and a large venomous one is particularly targeted25.
  • Pesticides are an important threat around settlements. As cobras feed on rodents they are also exposed to secondary poisoning where rodenticides are used25.
  • Wells, cisterns and other water structures function as pitfall traps across arid Morocco and kill reptiles in quantity10.
  • Road mortality also affects this species, and the road network, along with the number of cars, is always increasing within the cobra’s range (pers. comm.)

Snakes are formally protected in Morocco under the implementing decree of law 29-05, category IV, but the number that may be harvested or exhibited is not restricted, and the protection has little effect on the ground4. Harvest management is the single conservation action the global IUCN assessment lists as needed25. The measures proposed for North Africa specifically include licensing hunters and charmers, capping the number of animals each may take per year, marking individuals with transponders, banning the exhibition of defanged snakes, and establishing a captive breeding programme for the Egyptian Cobra, so that charmers and the antivenom laboratories can be supplied without drawing on the wild population18.

Captive Egyptian Cobras (Naja haje) on the Jamaa el Fna square in Marrakech
Egyptian Cobras (Naja haje) in Marrakech, on the Jamaa el Fna square, exploited until they die before being replaced by newly wild-caught individuals.
Well in Morocco, a deadly trap for snakes including the Egyptian Cobra
Wells and other water structures are deadly traps for many snakes, including the Egyptian Cobra. On our expeditions we have found more dead cobras in these man-made structures than live ones out in the open.

Maps

  • Bons, J., & Geniez, P. (1996). Amphibiens et reptiles du Maroc (Sahara Occidental compris). Atlas biogéographique. Asociación Herpetológica Española.
  • Martínez del Mármol, G., Harris, D. J., Geniez, P., de Pous, P., & Salvi, D. (2019). Amphibians and Reptiles of Morocco. Frankfurt Contributions to Natural History, 74. Edition Chimaira.
  1. Argaz, H., Fahd, S., & Brito, J. C. (2013). Venomous snakes in Morocco: biogeography and envenomation. ScienceLib Editions Mersenne, 5, Article 130509.
  2. Aymerich, M. (2013). Fiche cobra. https://web.archive.org/web/20130928033759/http://geres-asso.org/fiche_cobra.html Retrieved 15 August 2026.
  3. Baha El Din, S. (2006). A guide to the reptiles and amphibians of Egypt. The American University in Cairo Press, via Khannoon & Evans (2014)12.
  4. Bergin, D., & Nijman, V. (2014). Illegal and open wildlife trade in Morocco's capital. Swara, July-September, 54-57, via Pleguezuelos et al. (2018)18.
  5. Bons, J., & Geniez, P. (1996). Amphibiens et reptiles du Maroc (Sahara Occidental compris). Atlas biogéographique. Asociación Herpetológica Española, via León Vigara (2013)15.
  6. Chafiq, F., Bahra, I., Yaqini, K., Rhalem, N., & Soulaymani-Bencheikh, R. (2015). À propos d'un cas d'envenimation par Naja haje legionis traité par une seule ampoule de FAV-Afrique®. Toxicologie Maroc, 24, 13-14.
  7. Chafiq, F., El Hattimy, F., Rhalem, N., Chippaux, J.-P., Soulaymani, A., Mokhtari, A., & Soulaymani-Bencheikh, R. (2016). Snakebites notified to the poison control center of Morocco between 2009 and 2013. Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases, 22, Article 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40409-016-0065-8.
  8. Eljaoudi, R., Larréché, S., Chakir, S., Chafiq, F., Hmyene, A., Mion, G., & Oukkache, N. (2019). Snake bites in Morocco: Progress and challenges. Advances in Toxicology and Toxic Effects, 3(1), 9-14. https://doi.org/10.17352/atte.000004.
  9. Filippi, E., et al. (2013). Naja haje (ophiophagy). Herpetological Review, 44(1), 155-156.
  10. García-Cardenete, L., Pleguezuelos, J. M., Brito, J. C., Jiménez-Cazalla, F., Pérez-García, M. T., & Santos, X. (2014). Water cisterns as death traps for amphibians and reptiles in arid environments. Environmental Conservation, 41(4), 341-349, via Pleguezuelos et al. (2018)18.
  11. Gíl, J. M., & Pleguezuelos, J. M. (2001). Prey and prey-size selection by the short-toed eagle (Circaetus gallicus) during the breeding season in Granada (south-eastern Spain). Journal of Zoology, 255(1), 131-137. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952836901001182, via Pleguezuelos et al. (2018)18.
  12. Khannoon, E. R., & Evans, S. E. (2014). The embryonic development of the Egyptian Cobra Naja h. haje (Squamata: Serpentes: Elapidae). Acta Zoologica, 95(4), 472-483. https://doi.org/10.1111/azo.12043.
  13. Khannoon, E. R., & Evans, S. E. (2015). The development of the skull of the Egyptian Cobra Naja h. haje (Squamata: Serpentes: Elapidae). PLOS ONE, 10(4), Article e0122185. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0122185.
  14. Khourcha, S., Hilal, I., Elbejjaj, I., Karkouri, M., Safi, A., Hmyene, A., & Oukkache, N. (2023). Assessing the efficacy of monovalent and commercialized antivenoms for neutralizing Moroccan cobra Naja haje venom: A comparative study. Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, 8(6), Article 304. https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8060304.
  15. León Vigara, R. (2013). Naja haje (Linnaeus, 1758). In G. Martínez, R. León, O. Jiménez-Robles, J. P. González De la Vega, V. Gabari, B. Rebollo, A. Sánchez-Tójar, J. R. Fernández-Cardenete, & J. Gállego (Eds.), Moroccoherps. Anfibios y reptiles de Marruecos y Sahara Occidental. Version 09/05/2013. Retrieved 6 August 2026, from https://www.moroccoherps.com/en/ficha/naja_haje/.
  16. Malih, I., Ahmad Rusmili, M. R., Tee, T. Y., Saile, R., Ghalim, N., & Othman, I. (2014). Proteomic analysis of Moroccan cobra Naja haje legionis venom using tandem mass spectrometry. Journal of Proteomics, 96, 240-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jprot.2013.11.012.
  17. Pleguezuelos, J. M., Brito, J. C., Fahd, S., Feriche, M., Mateo, J. A., Moreno-Rueda, G., Reques, R., & Santos, X. (2010). Setting conservation priorities for the Moroccan herpetofauna: The utility of regional red lists. Oryx, 44(4), 501-508. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605310000992.
  18. Pleguezuelos, J. M., Feriche, M., Brito, J. C., & Fahd, S. (2018). Snake charming and the exploitation of snakes in Morocco. Oryx, 52(2), 374-381. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000910.
  19. Schleich, H. H., Kästle, W., & Kabisch, K. (1996). Amphibians and reptiles of North Africa. Koeltz Scientific Books, via León Vigara (2013)15 & Khannoon & Evans (2014)12.
  20. Snider, A. T., & Bowler, J. K. (1992). Longevity of reptiles and amphibians in North American collections (2nd ed.). Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Cited from AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database, entries for Naja haje, Naja kaouthia, Naja sputatrix and Naja atra. Retrieved 6 August 2026, from https://genomics.senescence.info/species/.
  21. Spawls, S., Howell, K., Drewes, R., & Ashe, J. (2002). A field guide to the reptiles of East Africa. Academic Press, via Wilms et al. (2021)25.
  22. Trape, J.-F., Chirio, L., Broadley, D. G., & Wüster, W. (2009). Phylogeography and systematic revision of the Egyptian Cobra (Serpentes: Elapidae: Naja haje) species complex, with the description of a new species from West Africa. Zootaxa, 2236(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2236.1.1.
  23. Valverde, J. A. (1989). Notas sobre vertebrados. VII. Una nueva cobra del NW de África, Naja haje legionis, ssp. nov. (Elapidae, Serpentes). Actas de las IX Bienal de la Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural, 2, 214-230, via León Vigara (2013)15.
  24. Warrell, D. A., Barnes, H. J., & Piburn, M. F. (1976). Neurotoxic effects of bites by the Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje) in Nigeria. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 70(1), 78-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/0035-9203(76)90012-2.
  25. Wilms, T., Wagner, P., Spawls, S., Beraduccii, J., & Malonza, P. K. (2021). Naja haje. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T184071A1748178. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-2.RLTS.T184071A1748178.en Accessed on 6 August 2026.

How to cite

Ruffieux, C., & Vuillemin, R. (2026). Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje). In: Castella, C., Iallaten, H., Ruffieux, C., & Vuillemin, R. (Eds.), Fauna Morocco. The Free Encyclopedia: Reptiles & Amphibians of Morocco. Available from https://fauna-morocco.org/encyclopedia/serpentes/elapidae/naja-haje.html (accessed 7 September 2026).

Published

7 September 2026

Last updated

22 September 2026

Authors

Colin Ruffieux
Rayane Vuillemin

Reviewers

Clément Castella
Haytam Iallaten
Mohamed Taha Aissaoui

Photography

Rayane Vuillemin

Methodology

Each account is a scientific synthesis: we compile the literature, read each paper in full, verify facts against their original sources when possible, and flag uncertainties for expert review. It is written first in English, reviewed by the team, then translated into French and Arabic. Every claim is referenced, and accounts are updated as knowledge advances. If you spot a mistake or an omission, please get in touch so we can fix it.