Red spitting cobra
| Red spitting cobra | ||||||||||||
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Red spitting cobra ( Naja pallida ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Well pallida | ||||||||||||
| Boulenger , 1896 |
The red spitting cobra ( Naja pallida ) belongs to the genus of the real cobras ( Naja ) within the family of poisonous snakes ( Elapidae ).
features
The 80–130 cm long species is either salmon-colored to coral-red or has a brown color with a broad black band in the neck area. It has a small, rounded head and large eyes with round pupils ; There are black markings under the eyes , reminiscent of tears.
distribution and habitat
The red spitting cobra is found exclusively in eastern Africa. It prefers dry savannahs and semi-deserts . Reddish specimens are mainly found in the semi-deserts of Kenya and Sudan , where the earth is often colored red. In contrast, specimens found in Egypt are mostly brown; they prefer swamps.
Way of life
It is mainly nocturnal , with young animals often also being active during the day . It mainly hunts small mammals , birds and also eats other snakes. Even cannibalism is not uncommon.
Defense and Spitting
In case of danger, the cobra straightens its neck and presents its pronotum . If the opponent is not impressed by this, she opens her mouth to spit her poison in his face, especially in his eyes, from up to 3 m away . The poison is squirted out through the forward-facing openings of the short poisonous teeth. It does this by contracting a muscle that puts pressure on the poison gland. The description found in older literature that the poison is driven by the air flow during exhalation does not correspond to the facts. The snake proceeds with amazing precision and almost always hits its target. Due to the speed of their attack, their victims rarely manage to evade.
Poison
The poison of these species has a high proportion of tissue-destroying substances. Bites attributed to the puff adders found in the same area were in part caused by these cobras. If poison gets into the eyes, this leads to severe pain and, if insufficiently supplied, can lead to temporary to permanent blindness . As a rule, however, their poison is not fatal to an adult and healthy person; bitten people usually recover quickly.
Systematics
The closest relative of the red spitting cobra is the Nubian spitting cobra ( Naja nubiae ).
swell
Individual evidence
- ^ BA Young, K. Dunlap, K. Koenig, M. Singer: The buccal buckle: the functional morphology of venom spitting in cobras. In: The Journal of Experimental Biology. Volume 207, 2004, pp. 3483-3494.
- ^ W. Wüster, S. Crookes, I. Ineich, Y. Mané, CE Pook, J.-F. Trape, DG Broadley: The phylogeny of cobras inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences: Evolution of venom spitting and the phyleogeography of the African spitting cobras (Serpentes: Elapidae: Naja nigricollis complex). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Volume 45, 2007, pp. 437-453.
- ^ W. Wüster, DG Broadley: A new species of spitting cobra (Naja) from north-eastern Africa (Serpentes: Elapidae). In: Journal of Zoology. Volume 259, 2003, pp. 345-359.
literature
- Mark O'Shea, Tim Halliday: Reptiles and Amphibians. Dorling-Kindersley Verlag, London 2001, ISBN 3-8310-1015-3 .
- Chris Mattison: The Snake Encyclopedia. BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 2004.
- Chris Mattison: Snake. Dorling-Kindersley Verlag, London 1999 (original edition).
