The black mamba 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 and commonly grow to 3 m.
Over distance they slow down to 7 MPH (12 KPH). However, the average human run speed over distance is 6 MPH (10 KPH). Thus, you cant outrun a Black Mamba. Still, Black Mambas are extremely shy and will do everything they can to avoid people.
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.
Unfortunately, the black mamba can move at about 7 mph and strike much, much faster. That means the snake moves about as fast as the average person jogs. A black mamba will chase a person down to kill them. However, their speed does make getting away from one that feels threatened a bit more difficult.
The black mamba, for example, injects up to 12 times the lethal dose for humans in each bite and may bite as many as 12 times in a single attack. This mamba has the fastest-acting venom of any snake, but humans are much larger than its usual prey so it still takes 20 minutes for you to die.
The inland or western taipan, Oxyuranus microlepidotus, is the most venomous snake in the world, according to Britannica. Native to Australia, this snake has the deadliest venom based on median lethal dose, or LD50, tests on mice.
A human can collapse within 45 minutes of a Black Mamba bite. Without treatment it can take 7 to 15 hours for a Black Mamba bite to kill you. The sooner a person is treated after the bite, the better his chances of survival. A Black Mamba antidote is administered where necessary, but some people may be allergic.
Stories of black mambas that chase and attack humans are common, but in fact the snakes generally avoid contact with humans. Most apparent cases of pursuit probably are examples of where witnesses have mistaken the snake's attempt to retreat to its lair when a human happens to be in the way.
"While the mamba put up a fight, continually striking at the cobra, the cobra won the battle with its superior size and strength, eventually eating the mamba."
Like most diurnal snakes in South Africa, black mambas are considered to have good vision. They are able to detect motion and may strike if they pick up any sudden movement perceived as a threat. Their keen eyesight also helps them hunt for the small mammals that typically make up their diet.
Black mambas are majestic animals that are incredibly strong and intelligent with a keen sense of sight. They are very alert and active snakes with a fast metabolism, which means that they are able to digest prey quickly. During the day, they actively hunt on the ground and in trees.
Black mambas are shy but aggressive, and if cornered, the snake may rear up and threaten with an open mouth and a slightly expanded or flattened neck (or hood) before striking. Black mambas can strike repeatedly, injecting its deadly neurotoxic venom which causes difficulty in breathing within half an hour.
Twenty minutes after being bitten you may be lose the ability to talk. After one hour you're probably comatose, and by six hours, without an antidote, you are dead. A person will experience "pain, paralysis and then death within six hours," says Damaris Rotich, the curator for the snake park in Nairobi.
So, if for some reason, the snakes bit each other at roughly the same time, the inland taipan's powerful venom would probably kill the black mamba before the mamba's venom killed it. In that case, the inland taipan would technically be the winner.
The Black Mamba 31 can be described as: Fast, Forgiving, Smooth, Quiet, Lightweight, Balanced, Tunable…..
But if they feel threatened they are going to attack rather aggressively. They lift their head, so that up to one third of their entire body stands bolt upright, they spread their cobra-like neck-flap, open their black mouth and hiss. If an attacker retreats slowly, the black mamba also escapes.
A mongoose would be able to fight an adult black mamba and win, although the mammal will often attack young black mambas as they are easier targets and will also eat the snake's eggs. Another animal that possesses a similar immunity to the black mamba's venom is the honey badger.
Their main threats are from people, who fear the snakes and their aggressive reputation. While black mambas are often killed out of fear by the people who live near them, their main predators are mongooses, honey badgers, birds such as brown snake eagles, secretary birds, and black-headed herons.
Since mambas are also able to swim, they can move smoothly and easily in the water, too. Though green mambas spend more time up in trees, black mambas do occasionally climb trees and have been known to drop on their predators if they feel threatened.
The black mamba is Africa's deadliest snake. Untreated, its bite has a fatality rate of 100 percent, making it a killer among killers on a continent where it is thought that nearly 20,000 people die of snake bites each year, and the residents of Swaziland in southern Africa have suffered losses for generations.
Black Mamba vs Black Widow: Bites Per Year
Additionally, it's difficult to tell how many deaths resulting from black mamba bites occur each year. The number that is often cited (20,000) is referring to all snake-related deaths across the continent, meaning that black mambas are some percentage of that number.
In fact, the bite of the Black Mamba has been studied for its analgesic effects and the fact that it does not produce pain to its victims. However, this leads to many black mamba injuries going unnoticed or otherwise untreated, given the fact that they don't hurt.
Mambas are adept at climbing and will often travel through the tree canopy undetected. Recently my colleagues and I examined the case of a young man who was bitten by a black mamba in South Africa.
If a snake were to bite itself, antibodies would quash any venom injected into the blood. They bind to the venomous protein particles, forming harmless pieces of protein which are ejected by the kidneys. Snakes have evolved so they can bite their own tails but cannot poison themselves.