Talk:Black mamba

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[edit] Aggression

In the first sentence of this article it says black mambas are aggressive, this is untrue, they are scared of humans and usually only bite if provoked. 68.0.144.113 (talk) 15:20, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Copyvio

The April 9 (I said April 6 by mistake in my edit) additions from User:68.237.211.70 were copied and pasted from http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/wildkingdom/blackmamba/facts/facts.html, so I have reverted to the version prior to that. --tomf688 (talk - email) 23:08, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

I heard that a black mamba can strike a balloon 10 times in two seconds. A pretty amazing feat, and something worth including, if one could find a reference for it besides word-of-mouth or at least confirm the accuracy of that statement (whether it is really true.) -T.

Not true. Although mambas, like tiapans, reportedly can BITE several tims before an individual can react, they are not the fastest of strikers. That record is still held by a viriaty of vipers which can strike at much faster rate!

Also, black mamba antivenin is not rare and expensive. The most well known supplier is S.A.M.I.R. which makes a polyvalent (polyvalent antivenins are effective against variety of species) and cost about $40-50 A vial, compare to Cro-fab (used to treat all North American snake envenomations) which cost about $2000 a vial, it's relativly cheap.

While it is not incorrect to state that "the black mamba is widely regarded as the most dangerous snake in world”, you will find that some professional keepers may take issue with such a statement. To be fair, other candidates for “worlds most dangerous…” would have to include tiapans, king cobras, forest cobras, terciopelos, and possibly Gold’s tree cobra. There are some people who would insist that large African rock or reticulated pythons also via for that title. It is interesting to note that none of the previously mentioned critters; with the exception of the terciopelo, contributes largely to annual worldwide snakebites and fatalities list.

They are invulnerable, because no animal can actually kill them. Their venom can kill just about anything, so they don't have much to worry about. The mamba is mainly threatened by habitat destruction. Be scared of these things, this ain't no joke. - The Mamba.

The Mamba is tougher than the Mongoose or the Lil Troopers. -Dictionary.com

This page doesn't help at all I urge a smart person to edit this and make it easier for us kids to understand and find information on the Black mamba. ;)


With internal shudders at the thought of venom coarsing through my obese blubbery body I wonder how the mamba's venom compares with the Mojave rattlesnake in regards to threat to humanoids, lethality per average injected venom amount and a few et ceteras.Obbop 23:06, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

This page doesn't help at all I urge a smart person to edit this and make it easier for us kids to understand and find information on the Black mamba. ;)from:Ms.Confused

[edit] New Info

While I can apprecitate new information on any article, I need to see citations of added info concerning this topic. There are thousands of urban legends about black mambas that many people take as fact. If citations are not made and I can't find material supporting new info I will revert to the last edit.--Joe Jklin (T C) 03:02, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Here is my question- Where in the world do Blck Mambas live? -Qty

They live in most parts of Africa, particulary on the Southern part.

Perhaps some sort of map showing where the Black Mamba lives, or something specific about its spread other than Africa would be nice? -~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.165.200.246 (talk) 23:35, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] umm

um ok whoever wrote this needs to do some serious correcting because Black Mambas are not aggressive at all. They run away when a human is near and want to stay clear of other animals as well. they only attack when threatened67.184.21.133 00:42, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

–== 100% lethality ==

While technically true with the wording given, it gives the wrong impression: that you *must* have antivenom to survive. There was a show on... Discovery, I'm pretty sure ... about a guy who survived a black mamba bite without antivenom. I believe he was a photographer, but I don't recall the name (I'll get it the next time I see the show). He used the Australian wrapping method on his arm, let it hang limp, and walked slowly, calmly, so as not to circulate the contaminated lymph. He made it to his car and started driving toward the nearest town. He began having trouble controlling the vehicle, but lucked into a car going the opposite direction, and blocked the road with his vehicle. They took him to a hospital, but it had been so long by the time he got there (I want to say it was something like two hours), that they were insistant that the identification of the snake that he told to the people who drove him there had to be wrong, and didn't give him antivenom. He was too out of it by then to help. Now, I believe he *was* on a ventilator, so he did get "medical care", but not the antivenom that the referenced article says is essential. He eventually bottomed out and slowly recovered.

Anyways, Wikipedia's standard is verifiability, not truth, so this shouldn't go into the article until *it* can be verifiable (and for that, I'll need the guy's name). Just pointing out that the current section is misleading. -- Rei 05:23, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

While the story is true (heres a link if you wanna check it out Bitten by a Mamba it would not change the 100% lethality. One or two survivors out of thousands (maybe more) is statistically insignificant. In other words it would read 99.99999999% of all mamba bites are lethal, which just isn't practical. At one point I had the article reading that near 100% of mamba bites were lethal to correct this problem but it was constantly being changed. I may change it back when the article is finally stable.~ Joe Jklin (T C) 05:03, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
I think the biggest factor is the amount of venom reliably envenomated with each strike. I know a lot of species (including all of the North American poisonous snakes) supposedly dry strike fully 40% of the time, and generally dispense a level of venom only appropriate for killing a small animal when they do envenomate. Thus, most people survive (albeit with complications) and the common maxim about how usually only children, the elderly, and the infirm die without anti-venom is born. The black mamba is apparently the opposite; they're a huge friggin' snake with a LOT of venom, and when they bite, they blow the whole load of venom every time. Large King Cobras are similar, but they actually envenomate quite a bit less than the mamba. It's a bit tough to expect any human to survive a 200 mg envenomation (that's about 3 full milliliters of venom, btw) when the LD-50 for humans is 10-15 mg. Bullzeye (Ring for Service) 03:21, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
Oh, and also the black mamba lacks the "social skills" that many more commonly encountered snakes display. The "flare, pose, and hiss" of the King Cobra is a regular mating ritual compared to the BM; the account of the only gentleman who ever survived a BM envenomation was pretty textbook as to their total lack of display before striking. Mambas seem to have, from my experience, almost no desire or instinct to make a show if they're pissed or startled; they'll simply stick you and move on. Bullzeye (Ring for Service) 03:33, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] typo

There is an instance of the word "nackname" that should read "nickname" in the eratta section at the bottom. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.70.108.61 (talk) 11:42, 4 September 2007 (UTC) the articles blocked so i can't edit it, but it repaets the lethality of the black mamaba and it being 3 times as deadly as a cape cobra.124.187.192.165 07:53, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Repeating Information

Has anyone noticed that the first paragraph under the Behavior heading has three sentences that repeat? It starts after the first sentence. Mamyot0 15:04, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] what's up with that

was up with Do not poke the snake in all caps shouldn't you just put WARNING:SNAKE IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS AND WILL ATTACK EVEN IF NOT PROVOKED! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.180.225.161 (talk) 02:11, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 20 minutes

Anybody know what National Geo's source was for the claim that mamba venom is deadly within 20 minutes (the NG article cited here says 'usually' within 20 minutes)? Subjects like this encourage a lot of exaggeration, and anecdotal evidence is often wildly inaccurate (a single case of somebody bitten in a vein may turn into 'invariably') so it would be nice to see something along the lines of a medical paper. --119.11.34.130 (talk) 20:34, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd avoid any mention of time at all - it's highly dependent upon the person, the individual snake, the amount of venom injected, the location of the bite, etc. Person A may survive the bite with no medical treatment at all, while person B may die within minutes due to having an allergic reaction to the bite (much like people who are allergic to bee stings). Mokele (talk) 03:43, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Refrences

The Black mamba also featured in an important episode of the show "Quantum Leap", speceifcally the episode "Boogeyman", its presence was fairly important in the episode as well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.97.212.98 (talk) 23:57, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cultural references

This section is undisguised trivia, and way as well be removed in line with the policy on trivia. It could be replaced by a concise 'see also' section that directs to related articles.JMK (talk) 15:19, 29 March 2008 (UTC)