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This snake is often called the Green Devil by the Africans, because the green mamba is one of the most cunning snakes on the planet. It not only has an incredibly powerful neurotoxic poison, which acts with high efficiency on a variety of living beings (including humans), but also aggressive habits that are not characteristic of even dangerous snakes.
The peculiarity of the mamba is the rapid attack, which is not always caused by external factors, but can be caused simply by the presence of the green mamba next to it, while it, unlike many other dangerous snakes, bites repeatedly. In this connection, delivers a greater amount of poison.
Appearance and habitat
As it is not difficult to guess, the main color of this snake is green, but this parameter is not so unambiguous. Young mambas are distinguished by a rather light green color, which changes with age and becomes darker.So, a mature green mamba can actually have a dark green and even a bluish color. The length reaches two meters (recorded maximum - 210 centimeters), that is comparable with the length of a person.
The main habitat for this creation of nature are trees and vines. The green mamba almost never goes down to the ground and prefers to crawl along the treetops and branches, which it perfectly imitates. Due to the specific color and shape, this mambo is practically indistinguishable from branches and lianas.
From the interesting facts about the habitat of this snake should be noted:
- Prefers mangrove forests and bamboo thickets.
- It lives mainly in West Africa: Mozambique, East Zambia and Tanzania.
- She loves wet spaces, so often in coastal areas.
- For the most part inhabits the plain, but can rise in the mountains up to 1000 meters.
- Now often began to appear in cities and tea plantations.
When the green mamba hunts down prey, he looks down from above, and then he goes down, flowing smoothly, with graceful movements. This process is also practically imperceptible from the outside.Therefore, the green mamba is an excellent master of disguise.
The eyes of this snake are always open and protected by a transparent film. On the front of the jaw below are two hollow teeth that are used to inject poison. A little further up and down are the chewing teeth.
For the most part, this snake eats birds and is therefore quite active. A green mamba moves through the trees and tracks everyone who appears in its habitat. Next begins tracking and harassment, which often ends with the injection of poison.
Poison features
Considering the main “contingent” of this snake's prey, it needs a quick and effective poison that will not allow the prey to fly away. A strong neurotoxin acts on a person in about two hours, after which the heart and lungs refuse.
In order to cope with this poisoning, an antidote should be used, which acts effectively, but here the main issue is the time of administration of the antidote, which must be used immediately.
Behavior features
The behavior of this reptile can be quite the opposite, the green mamba often goes to extremes. On the one hand, she is rather shy and cautious, and therefore often prefers to go unnoticed altogether, that is, if you walk through the jungle and this mamba saw you, then more often she just crawls away.
On the other hand, a mamba can get involved in hunting, and can also easily bite uninvited guests, whom he sees on his own territory. For the most part, this behavior manifests itself in mango or tea plantations during the harvest period. In a season, at least a couple of dozen people suffer from green mamba attacks.
A distinctive feature of the behavior is the absence of warning signals. If the other snakes that you disturbed, most often will first give some signals and, as it were, “hint” at possible developments, the green mamba does not warn, but simply, feeling the danger and being frightened, uses the opportunity to inject poison. This behavior is most often manifested if you frighten or disturb the snake suddenly, and in other situations the mamba crawls away more often than attacks.
Other features
Traditionally, snakes do not attack objects that are larger than themselves or that they cannot swallow. However, when it comes to green mamba, this rule does not work. Down on the ground, the reptile can bite almost anyone, especially when threatened (real and seemingly) danger.
For the most part, a mamba eats everyone whom it can find in the space of trees, ranging from birds and bird eggs to mouse. In addition, the reptile is also happy to eat bats, lizards and frogs.
The green mamba produces offspring with the help of eggs, which it lays in the amount of from 8 to 16. Hatching snakes in captivity and ideal conditions have the opportunity to live up to 14 years. Under natural conditions, these mambas, as a rule, live 6-8 years.
Eggs ripen to 105 days, after which small snakes appear about 15 centimeters in size. The poison of such a snake appears only a month later, when the body reaches a size of 40-50 centimeters.
An interesting feature is the almost complete absence of natural enemies.Although the green mamba can eat smaller snakes and larger snakes can eat the green mamba, thanks to the excellent disguise, this reptile has a fairly calm existence. The main factor that is now reducing the population is anthropogenic, that is, deforestation, environmental degradation.
Video: green mamba (Dendroaspis viridis)
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