African snakes: species diversity, top 10 most poisonous, description, habitat, species features, reproduction, life cycle, characteristics and features

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

Africa is a mysterious continent where there is a lot of "very-very" things on our planet. From the driest place, the fastest mammal (the cheetah) to one of the world's most venomous snakes, the African black mamba. The snakes of the Black Continent, according to official statistics, have killed more than 100 thousand people and continue to kill today. The ten most poisonous reptiles, their features and the presence of an antidote are described in this article.

Don't go to Africa

There are about 160 species of snakes on this continent. And only 10% of them are armed with deadly poisons for humans. At the same time, it is important to remember that although most African snakes are of impressive size, a person is not an object of prey for them. These reptiles are cautious and do not like meeting with us. Often the attack is provoked, and whether you teased the snake or hooked it by negligence, the bite of an African snake will be swift, and the effect of the poison will be inevitable.

Snake venom

Snake venom, which is a mixture of organic and non-organic substances produced by special glands behind the eyes, has various effects on the human body:

• Cytotoxic poisons destroy the cells themselves.
• Neurotoxic - affect the cells of the nervous system.
• Hemotoxic poisons disrupt the blood clotting system.

There are antidotes for almost all snake venoms in the world. That is why today a snake bite is not a 100% sentence. But with snake bites, it is not so much the presence of an antidote that matters, but the speed of its administration.

Most-most

Let's give a rating of the most poisonous snakes on the African continent. Let's start with the most dangerous:

• Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis).
• Green mamba (Dendroaspis angusticeps) - African snakes (the photo is presented in the article), which we will discuss in more detail below.
• Gabon or cassava (Bitis gabonica) is a snake from the family of vipers with a large head of variegated coloration.
• Egyptian cobra (Naja haje) - one of the representatives of the genus of cobras, lives in northern Africa.



• Another cobra is the Cape cobra (Naja nivea). Its range is southern Africa. This cobra has an equally even amber color (onprevious photo).
• Sandy Efa (Echis carinatus) is a venomous African snake. It is from her bites that more people die in Africa than from the bites of everyone else.
• Poisonous African snake of the Aspid family (Micrurus). Very unfriendly and aggressive. There is Coral, Ordinary, Egyptian and other types of asps. From a bite, a person dies within 4 minutes.
• The African boomslang (Dispholidus typus) is a very dangerous snake, from the bite of which the famous zoologist Carl Paterson died in 1957.
• The African noisy viper (Bitis arietans) is a large (up to 2 meters) snake that swims well. It is a viviparous snake that gives birth to up to 100 new snakes.
• Aquatic rhinoceros viper (Bitis nasicornis) - leads an aquatic lifestyle and is distinguished by two horns on its nose.

Svartmamba is completely black

Even if you don't know that the black mamba is venomous, its sight is simply terrifying. It's actually almost completely black. There are individuals of a dark olive or rich gray color, but when she opens her mouth, she is black inside, and even her teeth are black. The black African snake can reach 3 meters in length.

Very fast (speeds up to 11 km/h), aggressive snake. Her bites are multiple, she pursues the offender, inflicting repeated wounds. In one bite - 400 ml of poison. For a person, 15 ml is enough to die within 20 minutes from paralysis of the respiratory muscles if the toxin enters the bloodstream or painful death within 7-15 hours with bites in the limbs. There is an antidote, but before it appeared, absolutely everyone died from the bite of this snake. That is why in Africa it is also called the “kiss of death.”

Mambas often take a liking to landfills near human dwellings, so the usual garbage removal in Africa can be quite an extreme event.

Grunmamba

That's what the eastern green mamba is called in its homeland. The smallest of all mambas, males can be up to 2.5 meters long. The back of the snake is emerald green, and the belly is yellow. The eyes of this African snake are also green. It is diurnal and hides in bushes and trees. Feeds on small birds, mammals, lizards, frogs. Clutch 8-18 eggs.

Shy and cautious. Sometimes it settles even in the thatched roofs of houses. When a person appears, he tries to hide. The poison is neurotoxic and weaker than that of the black mamba, but stronger than that of the Indian cobra. There is an antidote, but it must be administered very quickly, otherwise respiratory paralysis will occur within 30 minutes.

Boomslang

Unlike mambas, this snake is not so big - up to 1.5 meters. It belongs to the subfamily of false snakes and its poisonous teeth are not in front of the mouth, but in the depths. The habitat is shrubs and trees, so the body color of these snakes is very diverse - from light olive to almost black. Lives in foliage and branches, the snake feeds on birds and their eggs, chameleons and frogs.

Poison boomslang hemotoxic action. Death comes frominternal and external bleeding. However, it does not have an instant effect, and the effect increases during the day. There is an antidote, but more often deaths occur due to negligence, when people do not attach importance to the bite of this snake.

And you can cry tears of blood

Our rating includes another very dangerous snake in Africa - sand Efa (Echis carinatus), a relative of the common viper. Their habitat is sandy savannah areas, where it moves in a very unusual way - in a lateral way. This is a relatively small snake (up to 70 centimeters), which, in case of danger, coils up and makes a chilling sound of small ribbed scales rubbing against each other.

Irritable and dangerous, strikes instantly and injects 12 grams of hemotoxic and cytotoxic poison into the victim. Already 5 grams of her poison is enough to open bleeding in all mucous membranes, and the tissues at the site of the bite die off in a matter of hours. There is an antidote, but even those who were saved often remain disabled with amputated limbs. In Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, a subspecies of the sandy efa is found - the Central Asian. The venom of this snake is actively used in pharmacology for the manufacture of drugs that regulate blood clotting.

And not only poisonous

But there are snakes in Africa that are not poisonous. They become favorite pets of enthusiastic terrarium keepers. For example, the African aurora house snake from the falsealready. Amazing olive-green scales with a golden stripe along the entire length and a bizarre ornament on the head becomes a true decoration. Almost a meter long reptile, unpretentious in maintenance, but surprisingly beautiful.

Another non-venomous snake that is very interesting to watch is the African egg snake or the common egg-eater. Its length is slightly more than a meter, it has a very beautiful body of a light color with a pronounced ornament. This snake will slowly swallow whole eggs in your terrarium. This action will take no more than half an hour. During which you will not leave the terrarium watching this African snake.