Rinkhals

South African spitting cobra in threatening posture

The Ringhals cobra or South African spitting cobra ( Hemachatus haemachatus ) is the only species of the genus Hemachatus from the family of poisonous snakes ( Elapidae ).

Features

Ringhals cobra snakes are heavily built, reaching a body length of an average of one meter and a maximum of about 150 centimeters. The head is hardly separated from the body, with a wide and flat sharply pointed, projecting beyond the lower jaw snout. The eye is large with a round pupil and is touched by the third and fourth of the seven upper lip shields. There are eight to nine, rarely only seven lower lip shields available. The body coloration is highly variable, the basic color ranges from gray to brown to blackish with white, black or light brown spots, occasionally missing a drawing. Young animals exhibit an irregular pattern of dark and yellow-brown bands, which is retained in some populations. The dark gray, dark brown or black ventral side has the neck to one or two conspicuous white cross bands. The hull has 19 rows gekielter shed in the middle, 116-150 Ventralschilde, 30 to 47 Subkaudalschilde and an undivided anal shield. The keeled scales they differ significantly from the spitting cobras of the genus Real cobras (Naja ).

Occurrence

The range of the Ringhals Cobra extends from Zimbabwe to the Cape Province of South Africa. They colonize altitudes from zero to 3,000 meters.

Way of life

Ringhals cobras are diurnal and nocturnal. Keep yourself preferably under rocks or in rodent burrows. When prey are small mammals, amphibians and reptiles. When threatened, the animals flee or play dead by throwing themselves on the back and can hang out the tongue. Backed into a corner defend themselves by spraying of poison that can be spewed from the relatively short fangs up to three meters specifically to the eyes of an attacker and inflammation and burning pain causes, as well as by tissue destruction can lead to blindness. Bites are rare, due to the strong neurotoxic effect of the poison but also for people living dangerously.

In the late summer or fall of 15 to 60 about 18 inches long live young are born.

Swell

• Ludwig Trutnau: poisonous snakes. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN ISBN 3-8001-7371-9, pp. 79-81.
• Vincent Carruthers: Wildlife of South Africa: A Field Guide to the Animals and Plants of the Region. Struik, 2005, ISBN 9781868724512, p 99