# Black Mambas



## Lori (Aug 11, 2009)

Basically I need some information about how black mamba's are in captivity their behaviour eating habits etc. don't worry I'm not about to try and get a DWAL and buy one, I'm too clumsy for that, I'm doing a report in college about Black mambas and have included a bit about black mambas on captivity, so if anyone keeps them and is willing to tell me a bit about them, I thought this wa the best place to ask!


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## Herpalist (Jun 17, 2009)

Subscribe to viperkeeper on youtube. He has many vids up, BM vids inclusive.


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## CraigMcLean (Nov 8, 2009)

If you ask me specific questions I'll answer them for you


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## CraigMcLean (Nov 8, 2009)

But do it by private email since I don't check this site regularly


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## rob challis (Mar 23, 2010)

Try Chris or Tina at Pilbara Reptiles in Gloucester as they keep them.

Pilbara Reptiles: Livestock Pricelists

Tel: 01452 527274

Regards

Rob


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## Marcus1985 (Jun 1, 2010)

I know this is an old thread but I thought I would just mention this.

I have been living in Namibia for the past 6 months, and am going back to uk on sunday. There is a guy here who keeps a black mamba. He has removed one of its fangs and always keeps anti-venom around. As im sure you know the black mamba is a very potent venom, he removed one of the fangs so that if it ever bites him, only half the venom will be injected, if he was to remove both fangs, the mamba would stop eating. Thats all i know im afraid, hope it helps


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## CraigMcLean (Nov 8, 2009)

No doubt this project has passed and this is no longer relevant to Lori. This may be of interest to other readers though. This is a story that will stretch your credulity but please bear in mind that this was in the 80’s and health and safety in the workplace was not an issue. Also, as youngsters we felt we were bullet proof, not to mention that we were aware that Addington Hospital was 5 mins drive away.

When snakes are on display, they tend to be in large, glass fronted enclosures. The unfortunate thing about glass is that it requires regular cleaning. This was all fine and good in the green section, however, in the red (deadly) section, this required a couple of young idiots to maintain the crispness of the display. A team of 2 was required; a watcher with a grabstick who would stand at the door, the other less fortunate idiot was the person who had to climb into the enclosure and clean the glass from the inside. This was my job for a year.

Most display enclosures consisted of a main glass front with a small glass door to the right through which you could enter. The door was about 4 foot off the ground. The object was for the watcher to watch with his grabstick while the other fellow would negotiate the 4 foot to climb inside the enclosure and proceed to clean the class. The red section included an enclosure of a number of black mambas. 

Now, as everyone knows, black mambas are skittish snakes and when cornered in a confined space have a tendency to rush past whoever is blocking their exit and in passing inflict up to 7 bites in rapid succession thus injecting volumes of neurotoxic venom into the hapless individual. They also have a tendency, when numbers are enclosed together, to set each other off. 

Cleaning the glass inside the enclosure would seem madness. There was a tactic however.

The trick was for the watcher to watch for their tongues. Movement inside the enclosure would have to be slow and steady. On entering, all of the mambas would focus on you. You, with your back to all of them would be reliant on the watcher. As you cleaned, if the tongues were flicking in and out, you were fine. If however the tongues stayed out in a wavering motion, the watcher would shout a warning and you would freeze until the tongues retuned to the more relaxed flicking in and out. You would then continue in your slow steady motion.

Believe it or not.

Another interesting fact that I have never seen research on and you won’t find on Google: (And if this prompts a response I would love to assist anyone interested)

When a European is bitten by a black mamba it takes about 6 or 7 hours on average to lapse into a coma and the symptoms come on gradually. When an African is bitten by a black mamba, no symptoms will be evident for up to 13 hours. The symptoms will then come on suddenly and it has been known for people to die on the trip between the observation room where no symptoms were evident and the trip to the heart lung machine on the 4 floor of Addington hospital.


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## coldestblood (Jun 4, 2011)

CraigMcLean said:


> Believe it or not.
> 
> Another interesting fact that I have never seen research on and you won’t find on Google: (And if this prompts a response I would love to assist anyone interested)
> 
> When a European is bitten by a black mamba it takes about 6 or 7 hours on average to lapse into a coma and the symptoms come on gradually. When an African is bitten by a black mamba, no symptoms will be evident for up to 13 hours. The symptoms will then come on suddenly and it has been known for people to die on the trip between the observation room where no symptoms were evident and the trip to the heart lung machine on the 4 floor of Addington hospital.


Have you got any more information on this? I'd be very interested in reading about it.


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## CraigMcLean (Nov 8, 2009)

coldestblood said:


> Have you got any more information on this? I'd be very interested in reading about it.


I think it would be a challenge to find anything written about this unless you went through the hospital records. I have gone through google and been surprised at some of the stuff written. What I have said comes from knowledge transfer and from having been involved in identification at the hospital. Because there are so many non venomous bites doctors were slow to react and tended to keep people in the observation room until symptoms manifested themselves. Pupil dilation was a sign but even when the dead snake was brought in they tended to wait. I remember an instance where a little girl from had been bitten on the foot. Her father had killed the snake and brought it in with her. The hospital had called the snake park and asked someone to come down. I had a motorbike so I was the one who went down. The bite was clearly visible and I identified the snake as a black mamba. It was about 3 feet long. Despite this, no action was taken other then observation. Remarkably in this case, despite having dilated pupils, she was fine. I was struck though by the potential seriousness and the lack of (what I thought) pro-active action. I had argued with the doctor on duty because just before that a guy had sat there for 12 hours, also with pupil dilation but no other symptoms. He suddenly had terrible difficulty breathing and during the flurry to help him he went into cardiac arrest. He was dead before they could get him to the equipment that would have saved him. I think the guy who dealt with this one was Craig Smith. Another guy who would know about this would probably be Johan Marais because he wrote a book around that time called “Snakes vs Man”. He did a lot of research with us and I think he got some of his information from Addington hospital.


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

a truly terrifying creature...: victory:


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