Mission 1- Rinkhals :Hemachatus haemachatus
The Rinkhals is without a doubt one of my favorite snakes, being sub-specie of the Cobra, it makes it even more interesting, I grew up with these blokes near a dam, the place was crawling with them and luckily still is, that’s why I had chosen to take the first path into exploring and photographing this beauty
This species is classified as dangerous and is predominantly Neurotoxic. They are predominantly nocturnal but often encountered basking during the day. It is not typical to other cobra's in that it is viviparous having upto 63 live young, but normally around 30,
The preferred habitat is savannah especially near to water where there are frogs, which is it's preferred diet. However for those who have kept them in captivity they are not overly fussy what they eat.
A dull grey, grey brown or black species that have white bars on the neck. This can be between 1 and 3 bars, but usually 2. They have keeled scales, which along with being ovoviviparous are the predominant features that do not get them classified as true cobras. They also have light bars on dark ventral scales, whereas the cobras have dark bars on lighter scales. The ventral scales of this species are normally dark grey to light grey, but white in juveniles. Sub-adults have black speckling which starts to the centre of the ventral scales. Banded phases do occur but along the coastlines. An albino specimen has been caught within Gauteng.
Their main means of defence is hooding and then spitting their venom. They are only able to spit from this hooded position. The venom range is usually around twice the body length and in adults this may be 2-3m. Should this defence fail they sham death and convincingly so. The tongue will often hang out of a twisted inverted upper body and lying very limp. If picked up it may or may not bite. Bites are not common but can be potentially lethal. The average yield is around 80-120mg and approximately 40-50mg would probably be fatal. Antivenin is extremely effective in treatment.
