Black-necked spitting cobra
Black colored specimen of the African spitting cobra
The African spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis ), also known as black-necked spitting cobra or black-necked cobra, is a kind of genuine cobras ( genus Naja ), which is widespread on the African continent.
Features
The African spitting cobra reached an average body length of 1.5 to 2.0 meters, but can be up to 2.7 meters long. This makes it the largest species of African spitting cobras. The coloration of snakes is highly variable and regions. The usual form is uniformly dark olive - brown to gray-brown or black on the top and resembles so much of the Mozambique spitting cobra (Naja mossambica ). The belly is yellow to reddish, the throat has the snake a wide black band. The Zebra Spitting Cobra (Naja nigricolis nigricincta ), a subspecies is striped striking and has 50 to 85 black stripes on a light brown or pink body as well as 32 additional horizontal stripes on the tail, all of which are available both on the back as on the ventral side. The head of these animals is solid black. The third subspecies, Naja nigricollis woodi, has a plain black body.
The snake's head has six, rarely seven upper lip shields, of which the third, the fourth rarely with the eyes communicates. In addition, the two snakes Voraugenschilde and three rear eye shields and 2 4 or 2 5 Temporalschilde own. The lower edge of the mouth gap form nine, rarely eight or ten lower lip shields. The African spitting cobra has 17 to 23 rows of Dorsalschuppen in the midsection. The belly is covered with 176-228 Ventralschilden and are followed by an undivided anal shield and 54-74 paired under tail- shields. Meanwhile, the Zebra spitting cobra Naja nigricollis was separated and performed as a separate species with two subspecies Well nigricincta nigricincta and Well nigricincta woodi ( WÜSTER et al., 2007).
Distribution and habitat
The African spitting cobra is used in large parts of tropical Africa south of the Sahara from Senegal to Somalia and south-east to Angola. The nominate thrives throughout the range including in East Africa in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, and in south-western Africa in Namibia, Angola and South Africa. The subspecies Naja nigricollis woodi occurs in central and western Namibia and the Cape Province in South Africa during Well nigricolis nigricincta is found in central and northern Namibia and southern Angola.
The preferred habitat may be highly variable and includes dry and wet savannah areas, sandy deserts, rocky gravel plains and in dry riverbeds, as well as in South Africa and the region of the Karoo.
Way of life
The African spitting cobra is mostly nocturnal and is accordingly only at night to catch prey. During the day they hide in termite mounds, rodent caves, hollow trees and tree stumps as well as in the root zone of trees. The juveniles, however, are diurnal. Like other cobras is also the African spitting cobra primarily ground alive, but they can also climb well. Regularly it is also to be found in the area of human settlements and hunts often in the range of chicken farms. It feeds on small prey such as amphibians, lizards, small snakes, rodents and birds.
As a spitting cobra is able entgegenzuspritzen their venom when threatened a potential enemy, and these species can spit over distances of up to three meters. She raises her head off the floor and spreads the neck that is narrower but with her than other cobras. The fangs have a venom duct, which opens at the tooth tip to the outside and allows the animals to " spit " their venom to. The poison has no effect on the skin, but will burn in the eyes and can cause permanent blindness.
The snake is oviparous ( oviparous ), where the females lay 8-20 eggs.
Toxic effect
The potentially deadly poison of cobras and thus also the African spitting cobra is a mainly postsynaptic acting nerves ( neurotoxin ) and cytotoxin ( cytotoxin ). The poisons of the African spitting cobra and Mozambique spitting cobra have an uncharacteristic for elapids property by causing severe local tissue damage. Survivors of a bite can therefore have severe wounds or even lose bitten extremities.
System
The African spitting cobra is a species of genuine cobras ( genus Naja ), which are used in about 22 species in Asia and Africa.
In addition to the nominate exists with Naja nigricollis woodi still a subspecies. The long -run as a subspecies Well nigricolis nigricincta was as a result of DNA sequence analyzes of the species group to Naja nigricollis assigned the status of a separate species: Well nigricincta.