From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The
spitting cobra refers to a group of
cobras that spit
venom when defending themself against predators. The venom of the spitting cobras though not generally fatal, often causes blindness and/or facial/body scars. Despite the name these snakes don't spit. They rather spray the venom, using air expelled from the lungs to pump the toxin from their fangs (much like a
squirt gun). When cornered, it can "spit" up to 2 meters. The various types of spitting cobras are found in the African and Asian continents.
A spitting cobra
Varities of Spitting cobras
- Black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis nigricollis)
- Black Spitting Cobra (Naja nigricollis woodi)
- Western Barred Spitting Cobra (Naja nigricollis nigricincta)
- Red spitting cobra (Naja pallida)
- Mozambique spitting cobra (Naja mossambica)
- Malaysian Spitting Cobra (Naja naja sputatrix)
- Sumatran spitting cobra (Naja sumatrana)
- Nubian spitting cobra (Naja nubiae)
- Rinkhals spitting cobra (Hemachatus haemachatus)
- Burmese spitting cobra (Naja manadalayensis)
Some non-spitting cobras too however have been noted to spit occasionally. Certain sub-species of the Indian cobra (Naja naja) do have the spitting tendency.
 Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) Spitting_cobra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitting_cobra) version history (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spitting_cobra&action=history) GNU Free Documentation Lizenz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License)  CC-by-sa (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/)
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