The black mamba is a snake that lives in the African equatorial forests. You can meet her on the southeast coast of Africa (more often in the south of the continent, in the latitudes of Lake Titicaca). She lives everywhere except Namibia and South Africa. She managed to adapt to all climatic zones. These are savannahs, and forests, and rocks, and swamps.
Man has captured a huge part of the space for the development of agriculture. For this reason, snakes are often forced to settle in the fields, in particular, among reed plantings. Sometimes they bask in the sun, climbing to its top.
One individual weighs about 1.5 kg, and its body length reaches 4 meters. The mamba snake has a thin body, an elongated head, rather large dark eyes with a round pupil. The color can be brownish gray or dark steel. The belly is usually lighter than the back, gray-white or yellowish. The inner cavity of the mamba's open mouth is always dark in color. The black tongue of the snake receives external information, and the formidable weapon of the asp is the poisonous motionless upper fangs. The teeth are not dangerous only for mongooses, because the blackmamba avoids and is very afraid of these small fearless animals. She enjoys crawling through bushes and trees. However, other related snake breeds do so more frequently. Usually camouflaged among foliage and branches, where it is not visible at all.
The black mamba is one of the most poisonous breeds, but it does not attack people, except perhaps in self-defense. Aggression can be caused by any sudden movement of the legs or arms, as well as loud unexpected sounds.
Features of nutrition, habitat and reproduction
The snake feeds on rodents, lizards and birds. Attacks the chosen victim instantly, inflicting a poisonous bite. Mamba is an aggressive and swift predator. It is able to develop high speed when driving, reaching 19 km / h. Such amazing data is unique to her, because the black mamba is considered the record holder (in terms of speed of movement). With this ability, snakes usually pursue the victim, and not just wait. The lifestyle of the asp is solitary, it settles mainly in tree hollows and rock crevices.
At the end of May and the first decade of June, they have a mating season. Males have a rule - do not bite when they are fighting for a female. During the battle, their bodies are intertwined, hitting each other with their heads, the opponents try to pin the opponent to the ground. The female chooses the winner and after a certain time lays up to 17 eggs. After only 40 days (maximum), snakes are born, the length of which is only 50 cm. The babies are quite independent, but the programthe killer and the hunter are laid in them already at birth. A newborn black mamba knows how to get food. Its color is green with an olive tint, although it will change color and shed many more times before the juvenile reaches sexual maturity.
When humans and animals are exposed to deadly snake venom, paralysis of the circulatory and central systems occurs.
Related species - green and narrow-headed mamba.
Under natural conditions, a snake lives for about 20 years.
Belongs to the class of reptiles, the scaly order, the asp family, the mamba genus, the black mamba species.
