[6][7] Although it prefers lowland forest and moist savanna habitats, this cobra is highly adaptable and can be found in drier climates within its geographical range.

[8] The forest cobra is a generalist in its feeding habits, having a highly varied diet: anything from large insects to small mammals and other reptiles.

[8][9] When cornered or molested, it will assume the typical cobra warning posture by raising its fore body off the ground, spreading a narrow hood, and hissing loudly.

[3] The genus Naja was split into several subgenera based on various factors, including morphology, diet, and habitat.

The subgenus is united by their restriction to central and west African forest and/or forest-edge type habitat.

The species within the subgenus Boulengerina show great diversity in size; from the forest cobra (Naja melanoleuca), which can attain lengths of nearly 2.7 metres (8.9 feet), to the burrowing cobra (Naja multifasciata), which usually doesn't grow larger than 0.8 metres (2.6 feet) in length.

It is a slightly depressed, tapered and moderately thick bodied snake with a slender tail that is medium in length.

A study showed that females eat the same prey as males, so head size does not reflect a difference in diet.

The third colour morph, from the coastal plain of east Africa, south to KwaZulu-Natal, inland to Zambia and southern Democratic Republic of Congo, is brownish or blackish-brown above, paler below, the belly is yellow or cream, heavily speckled with brown or black, and specimens from the southern part of its range have black tails.

Deaths from respiratory failure due to severe neurotoxicity have been reported, but most victims will survive if prompt administration of antivenom is undertaken as soon as clinical signs of envenomation have been noted.

If the snake becomes cornered or is agitated, it can quickly attack the aggressor, and because a large amount of venom is injected, a rapidly fatal outcome is possible.

[33] Two cases from Liberia experienced severe neurological symptoms, including ptosis, nausea, vomiting, tachycardia, and respiratory distress.

The brown colour phase occurs in coastal and high altitude forest, woodland and thicket, and grassland areas (i.e. Nyanga, Zimbabwe).

Due to its secretive habits, and fondness for living in holes, it often persists in quite well-inhabited areas, common in and around many central African towns, even long after most vegetation has gone.

It occurs through a wide altitude range, from sea-level to forested mountains at 2,800 metres (9,200 feet) above sea level.

When not active, it takes cover in holes, brush piles, hollow logs, among root clusters or in rock crevices, or in abandoned termite mounds at forest fringe or clearings.

It can strike quickly, to quite a long distance, and if molested and cornered, it will rush forward and make a determined effort to bite.

It has been recorded as taking mudskippers, and in west Africa, one specimen had eaten an African giant shrew, an insectivore with a smell so noxious, most other snakes would not touch it.

[27] The eggs are laid in hollow trees, termite mounds, holes in the ground or females will make their own nests.

This may continue for an hour before mating takes place, when the male presses his cloaca (the chamber into which the reproductive, urinary, and intestinal canals empty) against that of the female.