Cape Cobra

Fascinating facts about the Cape Cobra

• Cape cobras display a rainbow of hues, from bright yellow to deep black, yet geography paints a pattern on this palette. In the Kalahari Desert of Botswana and Namibia, the snakes are usually a consistent yellow, while in the Western Cape's De Hoop, every shade from yellow to black appears side by side. Juveniles sport a dark throat that fades after a year or two, often confusing observers with the spitting Rinkhals.
• At De Hoop between 2004 and 2006, Cape cobras' meals broke down to 31 % rodents, 20 % other snakes, 11 % lizards, 11 % birds, 16 % carrion and 11 % conspecifics, showing a truly opportunistic diet. They even scavenged road-killed snakes, feeding on an adult Psammophylax rhombeatus and a karoo whip snake.
• Female Cape cobras lay between 8 and 20 eggs, each about 60 × 25 mm, in warm, moist spots like abandoned termite mounds during December, January. Hatchlings emerge 34-40 cm long after a 42-day gestation and a 65-70-day incubation at 28-33 °C. In a captive study, clutch sizes averaged 11-14 with a skewed sex ratio of one male to five females.
• Cape cobra venom is a potent cocktail: mouse subcutaneous LD₅₀ values range from 0.4 mg/kg to 0.72 mg/kg, with intravenous and intraperitoneal LD₅₀ at 0.4 mg/kg and 0.6 mg/kg respectively. A single bite can deliver 100-150 mg of this thick, syrupy toxin, enough to cause a ~50 % untreated mortality rate. Victims may succumb to respiratory failure within one to ten hours, underscoring why rapid medical care and antivenom are vital for survival.
• Cape cobras usually measure between 1.2 and 1.4 m, yet some individuals push past 1.6 m. The record holder, a male from Aus, Namibia, stretched to 1.88 m, while another giant from De Hoop reached 1.86 m.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Cape Cobra

In the scorching savannas and grasslands of southern Africa, the Cape Cobra weaves its way through the underbrush with stealthy precision, its slender, agile body gliding effortlessly across the dusty terrain. As it moves, its hooded head rises and falls in a gentle, sinuous motion, like a dark, spectral presence haunting the fringes of the wild. With eyes that gleam like polished onyx, this majestic serpent navigates its domain with a quiet, calculating intelligence, a true master of the sun-baked landscape.

More reptiles to discover

Browse Feravox