Cobras can be said to be one of the most venomous snakes in the world, they have a large population, members all over the world, and a unified appearance feature, that is, the neck is flat and wide, very characteristic. However, due to the restrictions of the growth environment, there are very few eye snakes in China, and there are only two kinds of snakes found in China, Zhoushan and Bangladesh, of course, this does not include the king cobra, because it is the most unique snake that has become an independent genus on its own, and the cobra only looks like it. Cobras are the most threatening snakes in both their kind and in the animal kingdom, most of their members will eat snakes, some even their own relatives and wives, but the appearance is very easy to distinguish, many snakes and animals see them are hurried to avoid, afraid of being targeted by this evil guy.
In most people's minds, cobras are not only fierce and poisonous, they also have a skill that other snakes can't match, that is, "spraying poison", and even some people think that all cobras, including king cobras, will spray poison, even if they do not attack, they can make people poisoned, which sounds more terrifying, but is this really the case? First of all, we have to understand how the venom is sprayed from the mouth of the snake, many people think that the cobra spray venom is to squeeze the venom, just like a syringe from the venom fangs, in fact, it is not the case, the venom of the snake is stored in the venom glands, the venom glands and the venom teeth are connected to each other, when injecting venom, the muscles near the head will squeeze the venom glands, and then flow out through the venom teeth.
This pressure is far from enough to spray the venom, it also needs a greater impact, when the venom flows into the hollow tube of the venom, the snake's lungs will release a strong air stream, squeezing the venom through the air stream to complete a spray, so the cobra usually sprays several times in a row when spraying, and cannot spray all at once. So do all cobras spew poison? In fact, this is not the case, in order to defend against large animals, the spray cobra evolved a unique tooth structure, only to effectively spray venom forward, some cobras can also spray venom, but can not complete the shooting, at most even if the spray has no fixed trajectory, but also does not pose a threat to the prey.
Like many people in China, the king cobra and the Zhoushan cobra will also spray poison, in fact, they are also random shots, the venom is difficult to form a straight line to shoot forward, usually splashed around near the mouth, which is far from being called spraying poison. The real poisonous cobra is like a sniper rifle, which points to which to fight, up to 2-3 meters away, the venom will not fly randomly, those cobras that do not spray poison are like shotguns, the venom splashes around, the accuracy is very poor even half a meter of range can not reach, completely did not grasp the essence. There are many cobras in the world that can really spray poison, such as the Philippine cobra, the Ashina peeping cobra, the red spray venomous cobra and the most famous Mozambican venomous cobra.
The Mozambican venomous cobra is the world's longest-distance and most poisonous snake, it can shoot 30 times in a row, the maximum distance can reach up to three meters, and it can hit the eyes of prey each time, and is the snake that poses the greatest threat to humans and large animals in Africa. Mozambique venomous cobra mainly inhabits the tropical jungles of South Africa, in Tanzania, Mozambique are distributed, the back is mostly gray, brown, etc., the chest is accompanied by black irregular markings, the overall color and the Indian cobra somewhat similar, its body size is not very large, the average is 1-1.5 meters, the reason why it can spew out so much venom, and its detoxification has a lot to do with it. Although the Mozambican cobra is small, the detoxification volume is amazingly high, with an average detoxification volume of up to 350 mg, more than the domestic king cobra, which is why it can shoot poison many times in a row.
Mozambican cobra is more neurotic, and bamboo leaf green sometimes fierce chase, sometimes head-hugging rat, its shooting ability is very good, do not look at it lying on the ground as if careless, but can suddenly raise its head to accurately shoot at the head of the prey, people are invincible, even large animals are often dissuaded by it with venom. The main component of snake venom is protein, which will not corrode the skin of humans and other animals, can only be transmitted through blood, unlike tetrodotoxin, which can be absorbed and poisoned by the stomach, so even if it is sprayed into the mouth of the animal, it will not be poisoned, as long as there is no ulcer and bleeding symptoms are usually safe, but the eyes are different, if the snake venom is sprayed into the eyes, most of them will cause blindness.
And the accuracy of the Mozambican cobra is very high, the main attack site is the eye of the prey, which makes the large animals very afraid of it, the wild animals that have lost their vision cannot hunt, and can only be slowly eliminated by nature, so the threat of this snake to humans in Africa is also very huge, even elephants dare not easily provoke. Some people may think, then if I take a helmet out, wouldn't I be invincible? You wouldn't think a poisonous cobra doesn't bite, would you? Although the venomous cobra has evolved the ability to shoot venom, but has not lost the ability to bite, other aspects are no different from ordinary cobras, and its number of injuries is also quite large, it is the most injured of all snakes in South Africa, and the venom type is neurotoxin and cytotoxin.
Mozambican cobra is not very toxic, toxicity test is: intravenous injection ld50 = 1.2mg / Kg, although the amount of detoxification is very large, but the content of neurotoxins is too low, only accounting for about 5% of the total, it is difficult to cause the injured nerve toxic reaction, the fatality rate is not high within 10%. However, it can not be underestimated, its cytotoxin can make the patient's wounds violently swollen, ulcerated and necrotic, necrosis rate and necrosis degree are very serious, and China's five-step snake is comparable, can be called the local "rotten meat king" in Africa. Therefore, the Mozambican poisonous cobra is more terrifying than the average cobra, not only can attack from a distance but also engage in hand-to-hand combat, even more terrifying than Africa's most famous black mamba snake.
If we encounter a cobra in the wild, we must also be extra careful, especially if we don't know the cobra, even if it can't spray poison accurately, we must keep a certain distance to avoid being splashed with venom into the eyes. If you really accidentally enter the eyes, at this time remember not to rub hard, otherwise the bleeding symptoms will be life-threatening, you can use water to repeatedly wash to remove the venom, timely go to the hospital for help is usually not a big problem.