In this issue, we want to introduce you to the popular species of the New Year's Eve update "【 Wonderland 】 Scaly Dragon Light ·Zoo Frankfurt· Wu-hong" - the red-sprayed venomous cobra (Naja pallida).
Because the couple in the video is too "calm", I really have no entry point to introduce them. So in this article, let's talk more about the story of Red Spray.
Ingenious East African visitor
The red-sprayed cobra has a wide range, such as Sudan, Chad, northern Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, and southern Egypt. They are rumored to be found in the oasis of the Sahara as well - a prerequisite, of course, is water, because redspray is not a desert species. Juveniles tend to live near water bodies or the edges of marshes, but as they grow larger and become more tolerant to drought, adults can move to wide, dry grassland landscapes or rocky areas.
The red-spouted larvae are close to the soil and vary in color from place to place - from different shades of brown to olive green or dark ochre. A few months after birth, the color will gradually change to a stronger adult color. But depending on where it is distributed, the shade of red and the intensity of the color vary: animals from Tanzania or eastern Kenya have a strong dark red or orange; Animals from other distribution areas tend to be dark brown.
Credit: Michael Kreuzer
In other words, adult red spray body color is related to the dominant earth color of the original place: it varies due to the oxide composition (such as iron content). In the wild, in the vast grasslands/rocky areas, this body color is an ideal camouflage to allow them to escape from raptors.
In the general literature, the size of the red spray is described as 100-120cm. Many people refer to them as "miniature cobras". But it could be due to the stress of living in the wild. Because according to a number of long-term breeding owners report, a considerable number of captive red spray can grow to 1.3-1.5 meters, and even nearly 1.9 meters of records. If you are interested in any species, look not only at wild data, but also long-term captive experience, and refer to these data first.
This makes sense: if a species is as "good" in captivity as its owners say, it should live longer and be larger than it is in the wild. If captivity is not as good as the wild, it may be an individual problem; But if the results in captivity generally fail to meet the records in the wild, there must be something wrong with the breeding method
Credit: Roger Aeberhard
Special skill: I pooh!
As a sorcerer with poison, it's necessary to distance yourself from your enemies. Red-sprayed cobras are so called "venomous" because they can actually shoot their venom at their enemies - at their enemies, mind you! This is not their hunting method, but their defensive behavior in response to stimuli.
When stimulated by other animals, they squeeze their poison glands through their muscles and squirt the venom out of small mouths above their front furrowed teeth. Their excellent eyesight gives them the ability to pinpoint their location, to see the reflection in the attacker's eye, so they can target the eye and spray. This hit has a high accuracy within three meters. Therefore, Spitting Cobra, which has the spitting name in both English and German, may be just such an effective defensive behavior, as they do not need to have a flat neck to intimidate their enemies, so their necks can only be slightly swollen.
Credit: Roger Aeberhard
Habitat and environmental arrangement
Although Red Spray mainly lives on the ground, it also has good climbing ability. Because in the wild, they not only have to roam grasslands, but also have to conquer rocky areas with semi-desert characteristics. In order to find prey and avoid predators, they often have to cross terrain obstacles. So "ground" is not a reason to give the environment a high discount in captivity, after all, in the wild there is a drop of one or two meters is also "ground".
But those two aren't moving much in the video, so what's the point?
I emphasized in the video that my shooting time does not coincide with their main activity time. Redspray is not an "afternoon campaigner" like many glasses, but prefers evening, night and early morning. The zoo is not open to the public during these three hours, so I can't witness their activity, but the keepers can only confirm that they are indeed more active during non-opening hours.
This is not unique, and many breeders also say that their activity time is only concentrated in these three periods. Of course, they also come out during the day, if not to feed, then they may be watching people like in the video, or simply swimming around a few times.
Therefore, it is recommended to set an environment of 150x90x80cm (and above) for a pair of adults in a captive environment, so that not only give people and snakes enough space to retreat, but also arrange background boards and bark branches for them to climb and warm. When it comes to heating, the temperature required for red spray is not high, and the basic temperature can reach 26-29. It is also recommended to provide a 33-35 degree sun point for it to choose - of course, all Settings must ensure that there is no visual dead Angle, so that the owner can know the location of the snake at any time is the safest practice for each other
Venomous snake tank design will be covered separately in the future. Source: Roger Aeberhard
If the environment is arranged in a safe and rich way, you can find red spray to be a very curious and attentive species. Young individuals, in particular, have good appetites and will often explore and search for food in the box. With a pair of excellent eyes, they can immediately detect every small movement of objects in front of them.
Credit: Michael Kreuzer
In addition to their good eyesight, they hunt down their prey with the help of their excellent sense of smell, and when they decide to hunt, they make several quick pounces and inject lethal venom. Due to the high activity level and very energy-consuming venom, red jets have a high basal metabolic rate, so their need for food is also increased, which also stimulates metabolism.
By snake standards, many cobras are very intelligent, and many serious breeders have this consensus. No other group of snakes exhibits such obvious learning behavior, and this is especially true of Red Spray: it has extremely accurate observation, and can react by repeatedly assessing the situation in a few seconds. In addition to its special learning ability and curiosity, Redspray also has a high level of self-confidence, which allows it to stand firm against potential attackers because they really know the power of their weapons.
Credit: Roger Aeberhard
Toys for lovers?
Festive color scheme, special ability, "not big" size, coupled with excellent learning ability, outline the eye-catching characteristics of this East African ruby. As a land enthusiasts, many people's first thought must be "keep one!"
So, red spray, is that really a free-range species?
Start with toxicity. Many European and American forums will describe the toxins of red spray as "less dangerous" or "less lethal." In the wild, it is not uncommon for victims to suffer partial loss of vision or complete irreversible blindness after being sprayed with poison into their glasses due to delayed or inadequate first aid. While venomous snakes usually have neurotoxins that affect the nervous system and motor function, the proportion of tissue-damaging cytotoxins endemic to the family of venomous cobras is very high. This venom is summed up as heart venom. It acts directly on skeletal muscles and can cause extremely severe pain and cause severe tissue necrosis, in which entire tissue is partially dead - a condition that often leads to amputation. There are also documented cases of children dying from bites.
So all venomous snakes, including red spray, whether "deadly" or not, are considered "dangerous species" in Germany that require special management - something that is banned in many densely populated states. This also determines that they are not just "pets".
Why is that? Germany is the most mature country in the world for breeding red spray. Not only do they start early, they have a high success rate. As early as the last century, the Ashkenazi bloodline has been spread across the European continent. So far, the artificial red spray larvae can hardly avoid the German descendants. Are such remarkable results due to lax laws, or the wealth of the breeders?
Credit: Michael Kreuzer
Not strictly speaking. The main reason is the accumulation of knowledge and market maturity, and the secondary reason is the internal discipline of enthusiasts.
The 100-year history of ethnography has allowed the German ethnography market to enter a "mature period" at the end of the last century - marked by numerous professional publications, close exchanges between academics and enthusiasts, and a market that is no longer fanatic: many enthusiasts have either already raised their own/family members, or can spend their addiction in zoos. Therefore, "raising snakes" in Germany is not a "strange" thing for a long time, and the same is true of raising poisonous snakes. People will keep them for "true love", not for some weird and frivolous reason such as "challenge yourself/try your hand/have fun".
When buyers buy a new species, they are willing to spend a month or two doing their homework and setting up the box before buying a snake. When the seller says in the breeding guide that "venomous snakes are only suitable for experienced owners," it can filter out many novices who look at a few photos and want to raise them.
Photo Credit: Gilbert Ruckert
But no matter how disciplined, how widespread the expertise, there will always be impulsive dangerous people at the exhibition "passion consumption". So how do you avoid this?
At the beginning of this century, the German professional association introduced the "Dangerous Species Professional Competence Test" to assess new people who want to keep poisonous snakes. Although this is not mandatory, all responsible elders will warn newcomers that if they want to raise any poisonous snake, they must have the appropriate professional knowledge. This makes the novice in the query of relevant information, unconsciously will realize that "raising these animals is the need for professional knowledge" - "verification of professional knowledge is a test" - "even if you do not go to the test should buy a textbook to see" - rather than pay to raise.
More on that in the future
So all this has nothing to do with laws and regulations, only with the degree of knowledge accumulation + market maturity. When the market is in the primitive stage, it will generally use price to measure the threshold of animal breeding, rather than the needs of the animals themselves; "How fast and save hard life" is the only value orientation, and how long the parents can live is not important; The more dangerous something is, the more possessive it is (whether toxic/offensive or legal), even if you are totally unfit to keep the species, etc...
Many people when it comes to domestic xx two climbing feeding technology problems, they will use "open feeding" to shift the topic. It seems that if we don't care what we raise, the level of public rearing will improve.
Poisonous snakes are the biggest counterexample
At present, China's supervision of the sale of poisonous snakes can be said to be very loose - loose to about equal to regardless. In Germany, by contrast, venomous snake management laws are much stricter than ours: several states prohibit private breeding; It is also illegal to sell poisonous snakes to anyone under the age of 18. In this way, it is not appropriate to use "not open" to explain away the lack of level?
When our enthusiasts raise a large number of dead bamboo leaf green, King Glasses and other snakes, but there is almost no legal obstacle (the law enforcement of the three species is really too weak) to learn relevant knowledge is never illegal, but the process of collecting information is more boring than attacking policy on the keyboard.
When we express our love for a species, we don't necessarily want to "try one." Instead, you should consult and purchase relevant books and materials as much as possible, and theoretically understand its habits/habitat/behavior/captive experience/toxicity, etc. As for whether they are suitable for raising, it is possible to know after checking tens of thousands of words of information. Especially in the lack of legal supervision and professional examinations in the social environment, want to raise snakes should do the corresponding homework
If you can put together an article the size of this one about "How to feed/Poison", then maybe you're ready