Eastern green mamba
Dendroaspis angusticeps
— Where the name comes from
Dendroaspis is “tree asp”, from déndron and aspís; angusticeps means “narrow-headed”. Mamba comes from the Zulu imamba and has entered every European language along with the reputation of its black relative. This, though, is another animal entirely: it lives in the trees, it is brilliant green and it hardly ever comes down.
— Facts
- Group
- Reptiles · Reptilia
- Order
- Squamates
- Habitat
- Coastal forest, thickets, mangroves, mango and coconut groves
- Range
- East Africa, from Kenya to South Africa
- Size
- 180–200 cm, up to 250 cm; 1–1.5 kg
- Diet
- Birds, eggs, bats, lizards
- Lifespan
- 14 years
— Characteristics
- 01
The green is so exact that among leaves it becomes invisible.
- 02
It comes down only to bask or to change tree.
- 03
It is extremely shy: it flees long before it is seen.
— What sets it apart
Almost all the “green mamba bites” reported in East Africa are not its. The coastal forests hold several harmless green colubrids, and somebody bitten by one runs to hospital convinced they have met a mamba: studies that collected the snakes responsible found that real encounters are very rare. The result is that this species’ venom is far less studied than the black mamba’s — simply because not enough cases can be found.
