Ring neck cobra
| Ring neck cobra | ||||||||||||
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South African spitting cobra in a threatening position |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Hemachatus | ||||||||||||
| Fleming , 1822 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Hemachatus haemachatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Bonnaterre , 1790) |
The ring-necked cobra or South African spitting cobra ( Hemachatus haemachatus ) is the only species of the genus Hemachatus from the family of poisonous snakes (Elapidae).
features
Ring-necked cobras are strongly built snakes that reach an average length of one meter and a maximum of about 150 centimeters. The head is barely separated from the trunk, broad and flat with a clearly pointed muzzle protruding beyond the lower jaw. The eye is large with a round pupil and is touched by the third and fourth of the seven shields of the upper lip . There are eight to nine, rarely only seven, lower lip shields. The body color is very variable, the basic color ranges from gray to brown to blackish with white, black or light brown spots, occasionally there is no drawing. Young animals have an irregular pattern of dark and tan bands that is persistent in some populations. The dark gray, dark brown or black side of the abdomen has one or two conspicuous, white cross bars in the neck area. The trunk has 19 rows of keeled scales in the middle, 116 to 150 ventral shields , 30 to 47 sub- caudal shields, and an undivided anal shield . The keeled scales, they differ significantly from the spitting cobras from the kind of genuine cobras ( Naja ).
Occurrence
The range of the ring-necked cobra extends from Zimbabwe to the Cape Province of South Africa . They settle at altitudes from zero to 3,000 meters.
Way of life
Ring-necked cobras are diurnal and nocturnal. They prefer to stay under stones or in rodent burrows. Small mammals, amphibians and reptiles serve as prey. When threatened, the animals flee or pretend to be dead by throwing themselves on their backs and letting their tongues hang out. When cornered, they defend themselves by spraying poison, which can be spat out of the relatively short poisonous teeth up to three meters into the eyes of an attacker and causes inflammation and burning pain, as well as causing blindness through tissue destruction. Bites are rare, but due to the strong neurotoxic effect of the poison, they are also life-threatening for humans.
In late summer or autumn, 15 to 60 cubs, about 18 centimeters long, are born.
swell
- Ludwig Trutnau: poisonous snakes . Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1998, 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 1-86872-451-4 , pp. 99 .
Web links
- Hemachatus haemachatus in The Reptile Database
- Hemachatus haemachatus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Ineich, I., 2009. Retrieved January 7, 2014.