Philippine cobra

Philippine Cobra (Naja philippinensis )

The Philippine Cobra (Naja philippinensis ) is a spitting cobra, which belongs to the genus of the Real cobras and only occurs in the Philippines.

Features

The Serpent reaches normally a length of 1.20 to 1.60 m, in individual cases up to 2 m. The coloration of the animals varies greatly between gray, light brown, reddish brown, ocher, and dark brown to almost black. Often, the snakes have a neck drawing, which consists of diagonal stripes. Juveniles are dark brown to olive green with a bright, grid-like drawing on the hull. The Philippine Cobra is the rounded head lifts barely away from the body. Like most cobras also it is able to with the help of her extended neck ribs to spread her neck to a neck plate.

Way of life

You are down- inhabiting, crepuscular and nocturnal and preferably no particular habitat, so it is found virtually everywhere. However, it keeps like near human settlements where food and shelters are available in abundance. As a dietary primarily include frogs, toads, small mammals, birds, small reptiles and occasionally other snakes.

For reproduction puts them in a protected and humid hiding up to 40 eggs. A striking feature of this type are the high irritability and nervousness. Before Crashing makes a series of threats and begins almost feline hiss.

Toxicity

The poison of this type acts both hemo- and neurotoxic. The neurotoxins act mainly postsynaptic and there prevent the binding of acetylcholine to the receptor whereby the ion channel associated therewith can not be opened and there is a polarization block. The resulting occurring respiratory arrest requires immediate medical treatment. According to a study showed 38 out of 39 bite victims symptoms that were attributed to the neurotoxic component of the venom. This resulted in 19 to a respiratory paralysis, three of them within 30 minutes after the bite. The mortality rate for Philippine rice farmers was in 1987 at 107 per 100,000 and year. In the Philippines, one monovalent antivenin is prepared against the poison.