SPITTING SNAKES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 10

SPITTING SNAKES

DISAGREEABLE REPTILES AT LONDON ZOO Keepers at the London Zoo recently had to wear motor goggles to protect their eyes while transferring a number of spitting cobras, or ringhals, from a travelling box to a cage in the reptile house. The reptiles came from South Africa. They spent a whole (lay sitting up, with distended hoods, spitting poison at the glass pane which separates them from the public. They can shoot their poison to a distance of 10 or more feet. The venomous fluid is ejected from the fangs in two sprays accompanied by the expulsion of air from the lungs. ■The snakes are well aware of the value of their spitting powers as a weapon of defence, for they invariably direct the streams in the direction of the faces of their enemies. The poison has no effect on the unbroken skin, but has a blinding effect on the eyes. Some years ago one of the keepers at the Zoo received the full spray in the eyes. In spite of the fact that he received immediate treatment, he suffered severe inflammation and partial blindness for several days. Many cases of permanent blindness resulting from this venom have been recorded in South Africa.

Another recent arrival at the reptile house is a two-foot long specimen of the so-called Australian bearded lizard. Its popular name is derived from the fact that the sides of its head and throat are covered with bristly spines, which, when the mouth is opened, stand erect, presenting the likeness to a beard.