40 Fun Facts About Black Mamba

The black mamba is usually grey or brown, so which inky part of its body gives the snake its name?

Inside of its mouth, the black mamba is blue-black to inky black, and it gapes to flash that lining as a warning when it feels cornered.

Which five-time NBA champion with the Lakers gave himself the nickname Black Mamba?

Kobe Bryant borrowed the name from a film assassin's codename, and his relentless approach to training became known as the Mamba mentality.

The black mamba is the world's second-longest venomous snake, beaten only by which species?

King cobra is the only venomous snake that grows longer, yet black mambas commonly reach three metres and outstretch every other venomous snake in Africa.

Field guides describe the black mamba's long, narrow head as being shaped like which object?

A coffin is the standard comparison for the black mamba's head, a grimly fitting shape for the snake most feared across Africa.

Which member of the weasel family has some resistance to black mamba venom?

Honey badger muscle receptors are thought not to bind the snake's paralysing toxins, which is why the venom has far less effect on it than on other mammals.

Mambalgins, proteins found in black mamba venom, are being studied as a new kind of which medicine?

Painkiller research took off after French scientists reported in 2012 that mambalgins relieved pain in mice without the toxic effects of the venom's other proteins.

The other three species in the black mamba's genus, all tree-dwellers, share which body colour?

Green is the colour of all three other mambas, which hunt in the canopy, while the black mamba spends most of its time on the ground.

If an intruder ignores a black mamba's warning display and keeps coming, what does the snake do?

It bites repeatedly in a quick series of strikes, so a victim can be left with several puncture wounds and a far larger dose of venom.

Stories say black mambas chase people, but what do the snakes mainly use their famous speed for?

Getting away is the point: most supposed chases are a mamba bolting for its lair with a person standing in the path.

At what time is the black mamba active, setting out to hunt from a permanent lair?

During the day is when black mambas hunt, and in South Africa they also sun themselves in the morning and again in mid-afternoon, often at the same site.

How do rival male black mambas compete for a female, in a contest sometimes mistaken for courtship?

By wrestling: the males twine their bodies together and raise their heads high off the ground, each trying to force the other down.

Which actress played the Bride, an assassin codenamed Black Mamba, for director Quentin Tarantino?

Uma Thurman's character goes unnamed until the second film of the two-part story, where she is finally revealed to be Beatrix Kiddo.

When cornered, a black mamba gapes, hisses and spreads a narrow flap on which part of its body?

Its neck flattens into a slim hood, which makes the snake look larger to whatever has cornered it.

What does a black mamba generally prefer to hunt, though it will also eat other snakes?

Birds and small mammals such as fledglings, rodents and squirrels make up most of its meals, and nearly all of them are tiny next to the snake itself.

How does a black mamba's skin colour change as the snake ages from juvenile to adult?

It grows darker with age: hatchlings start out pale grey or olive, though even a fully grown adult is rarely black.

Which small carnivores, quick enough to dodge a strike, will hunt black mambas even up trees?

Mongooses pair fast reflexes with some resistance to the venom, which allows them to harass a snake that most animals keep well clear of.

After striking a rat or squirrel, what does a hunting black mamba usually do next?

Lets go and waits: the snake releases its quarry, allows paralysis to do the work and only then swallows the meal, which it can digest in eight to ten hours.

The word mamba comes from imamba, the black mamba's name in which southern African language?

Zulu gave English the word, though the closely related Xhosa language also calls the snake imamba.

Which insect-built structures do black mambas often use as a lair, along with rock crevices?

Termite mounds give a ground-living snake a ready-made shelter, and a black mamba returns to its chosen lair regularly unless it is disturbed.

The black mamba sits in which category on the IUCN Red List of threatened species?

Least Concern is the black mamba's rating, the lowest-risk category on the list, thanks to its huge range across sub-Saharan Africa and no documented decline.

The black mamba belongs to which snake family, alongside taipans, coral snakes and sea snakes?

Elapids take their name from an Ancient Greek word for a sea-fish, and the family's roughly 360 species are found on land across the tropics and in two oceans.

The first black mamba known to science was collected on which explorer's Zambezi expedition?

David Livingstone's expedition naturalist, John Kirk, collected the snake, and that single specimen is still kept in a museum as the reference for the species.

Black Mamba was the 2020 debut single of which four-member South Korean girl group?

Aespa's video for the song drew 21.4 million views in its first 24 hours, the most for any K-pop group's debut video up to that point.

South Africa's Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit is a ranger force made up mostly of whom?

Local women from communities near Greater Kruger make up most of the unit, patrolling unarmed and removing snares before animals are caught in them.

Standard first aid for a black mamba bite means keeping still and applying which item?

A pressure bandage and as little movement as possible are the first steps on the way to hospital, where antivenom is the main treatment.

Black mambas have no external ears, but what are they adept at detecting instead?

Vibrations travelling through the soil alert the snake, which also has eyesight tuned to movement, so a sudden motion nearby can trigger a strike.

Where in the jaw are a black mamba's short fangs, which reach only about 6.5 millimetres, positioned?

At the front of the upper jaw, a placement scientists call proteroglyphous, the fangs deliver about 100 milligrams of venom in an average bite.

What does a female black mamba do once her clutch has been laid in an underground chamber?

Leaves for good is the rule: the young emerge two to three months later and have to fend for themselves from the very start.

Adult black mambas have few natural predators apart from which group of animals?

Birds of prey are the main danger: brown snake eagles have been confirmed taking black mambas nearly three metres long.

Which odd taste, along with drooping eyelids, is an early sign of a severe black mamba bite?

Metallic is the taste victims report, and unlike a typical snakebite there may be almost no swelling, only a tingle where the fangs went in.

A black mamba's flicking tongue delivers scent particles to which sensory structure?

Jacobson's organ, also known as the vomeronasal organ, reads the chemicals the tongue collects and tells the snake what is nearby and where.

Which sluggish African viper causes far more snakebites than the feared black mamba?

Puff adder bites are far more common than mamba bites, partly because the snake is widespread, basks beside footpaths and sits quietly when someone approaches.

The black mamba's species name, polylepis, joins two Ancient Greek words meaning what?

Many scales is the literal meaning, so the full scientific name Dendroaspis polylepis translates as roughly a many-scaled tree asp.

In some African languages the black mamba's name means catcher of which small rock-dwelling mammal?

Hyrax, or dassie, is the mammal in the name; a large black mamba will occasionally tackle one, though most of its meals are far smaller.

Which temporary structure does a hatchling black mamba use to break out of its shell?

An egg tooth cuts the way out, and the hatchling that emerges already has working venom glands and is dangerous within minutes.

In southern African folklore, the mythical black mamba iNdlondlo grows what on its head?

A feather sprouts from the head of the legendary iNdlondlo, a snake said to block the path of travellers before it strikes them.

One African myth claims a black mamba can chase people downhill by gripping its tail and doing what?

Rolling like a hoop is pure legend, as is the tale that mambas plan ambushes on drivers stepping out of their cars.

Photographer Mark Laita survived a black mamba bite to the leg, then discovered he had done what?

Caught it on camera: only afterwards did Laita find a frame showing the snake biting his leg, a wound he came through with little more than a sore night.

In parts of East Africa, Black Mamba is the popular nickname for which sturdy, steel-framed vehicle?

A bicycle of the old roadster type earns the name, and riders put these heavy machines to work as taxis as well as for hauling loads.

Black Mamba, a founding member of the villainous Serpent Society, belongs to which publisher?

Marvel Comics introduced the character, whose real name is Tanya Sealy, in a 1980 issue of Marvel Two-in-One.