Black Mamba

The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is a species of highly venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. It is native to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. First formally described by Albert Günther in 1864, it is the second-longest venomous snake after the king cobra; mature specimens generally exceed 2 m (6 ft 7 in) and commonly grow to 3 m (9.8 ft). Specimens of 4.3 to 4.5 m (14 to 15 ft) have been reported. It varies in colour from grey to dark brown. Juvenile black mambas tend to be more pale in colour than adults, and darken with age. Despite the common name, the black mamba is not black; the colour name describes rather the inside of its mouth, which it displays when feeling threatened.

The species is both terrestrial (ground-living) and arboreal (tree-living); it inhabits savannah, woodland, rocky slopes and in some regions, dense forest. It is diurnal and is known to prey on birds and small mammals. Over suitable surfaces, it can move at speeds up to 16 km/h (10 mph) for short distances. Adult black mambas have few natural predators.

In a threat display, the black mamba usually opens its inky-black mouth, spreads its narrow neck-flap and sometimes hisses. It is capable of striking at considerable range and may deliver a series of bites in rapid succession. Its venom is primarily composed of neurotoxins that often induce symptoms within ten minutes, and is frequently fatal unless antivenom is administered. Despite its reputation as a formidable and highly aggressive species, the black mamba attacks humans only if it is threatened or cornered. It is rated as least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species.

Taxonomy

The first formal description of the black mamba was made in 1864 by German-born British zoologist Albert Günther. A single specimen was one of many species of snake collected by John Kirk, a naturalist who accompanied David Livingstone on the 1858–1864 Second Zambesi expedition. This specimen is the holotype and is housed in the Natural History Museum, London. The generic name of the species is derived from the Ancient Greek words dendron (δένδρον), "tree", and aspis (ἀσπίς) "asp", and the specific epithet polylepis is derived from the Ancient Greek poly (πολύ) meaning "many" and lepis (λεπίς) meaning "scale". The term "mamba" is derived from the Zulu word "imamba". In Tanzania, a local Ngindo name is ndemalunyayo ("grass-cutter") because it supposedly clips grass.

In 1873, German naturalist Wilhelm Peters described Dendraspis antinorii from a specimen in the museum of Genoa that had been collected by Italian explorer Orazio Antinori in what is now northern Eritrea. This was subsequently regarded as a subspecies and is no longer held to be distinct. In 1896, Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger combined the species Dendroaspis polylepis as a whole with the eastern green mamba (Dendroaspis angusticeps), a lumping diagnosis that remained in force until 1946 when South African herpetologist Vivian FitzSimons again split them into separate species. A 2016 genetic analysis showed the black and eastern green mambas are each other's closest relatives, and are more distantly related to Jameson's mamba (Dendroaspis jamesoni), as shown in the cladogram below.

Description