Black Mamba – World’s Deadliest Snake

No other snake evokes the fear, myth, legend, respect, and awe as does the Black Mamba – quite simply the deadliest snake in the world. The snake’s found only in the African continent, and not in North America though that hasn’t stopped Kobe Bryant from self-styling himself the “Black Mamba”. I guess if you want to portray yourself as somebody who scores with every strike, you can’t have a better handle than this.

The Black Mamba bite has a near 100% fatality rate, and one bite injects enough venom to kill anywhere between 10 – 25 adults. I don’t know if the Black Mamba is super-aggressive or has a sadistic streak because it rarely stops at one bite. It bites again and again and when it’s done, its neurotoxin ensures that you’re done too.

The Black Mamba is not black in color. So if in Africa, don’t go fooling around with a snake that’s not black thinking that it’s not a mamba and you can handle it. It’s called Black Mamba because of the pitch black insides of it’s mouth. It’s a scary scenario and a very real one at that, it happens quite often, it’s something like this – you’re loitering in the bush, you run into a 12-foot long snake. It rears up 4-feet (you have read mambas can do that) and then it opens it’s mouth to reveal the inky blackness. That’s when you realize your worst nightmare has just occurred. It’s just at the right height to strike below your heart but thankfully some distance away. Now’s the actual life and death crunch part. The mamba can gallop at around 20 km / hr; now if you’re fat or you’ve got dodgy knees; be assured the irritated and highly aggressive mamba could make a slither for you. However, more often than not, the snake uses it’s speed to move away from danger. But there are stories of the snake catching up with people to strike them.