Understanding the black mamba: a dive into its naming and characteristics

Durban — Have you ever wondered why the black mamba is called the black mamba, especially since it does not appear black?

African Snakebite Institute (ASI) CEO Johan Marais answers the question of where the black mamba got its name in the September ASI newsletter.

Marais said common names of snakes, and other reptiles for that matter, are often confusing. Since there are no rules for common names, various names are often used to refer to a single species. You can call any reptile whatever you want, but you might be the only person that does so. For this reason, all living things have scientific names.

He said that there are rules in describing snakes and each species has a genus and a species name, usually written in Latin or Ancient Greek. These names are used universally, no matter what language you speak.

Marais explained that when referring to Naja nivea, scientists and lay people will know that you are talking about the Cape cobra, first described in 1758 by Linnaeus, who is the father of taxonomy. It is also called a koper kapel, bakkopslang, bruin kapel or geelslang. But in the North West province, farmers may refer to the snouted cobra (Naja annulifera) as a geelslang. It gets even more confusing as the snouted cobra used to be a subspecies of the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje) but was elevated to a full species by the late Dr Don Broadley in 1995 and the common name Egyptian cobra was dropped.

Additionally, we have a common or rhombic night adder (Causus rhombeatus) that is largely active during the day and a grass snake called the skaapsteker (Psammophylax rhombeatus and P. tritaeniatus), the latter blamed for sheep deaths in the Eastern Cape hundreds of years ago, but its venom is mild and cannot harm a sheep.

These common names are so entrenched that it will be pointless to try and change them. The Cape file snake, (Limaformosa capensis), is not found in the Cape and is now referred to as the common file snake. The name “Cape” likely referred to where the snake was shipped from the “Cape of good hope – Cape Town” when specimens were sent to European museums.

“As for the black mamba, both the green mamba (Dendroaspis angusticeps) and the black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) were considered the same snake. It was thought that they started green and later darkened with age. It was only in 1946 that the late Desmond FitzSimons, then curator of FitzSimons Snake Park in Durban, noticed several differences between the two snakes and alerted his brother Vivian FitzSimons of his observations. The two mambas in southern Africa were then described as different species,” Marais explained.

“The word iMamba has a Zulu origin, but in Swahili ‘mamba’ refers to the crocodile. As for its colour, the black mamba varies in colour but is rarely black or even very dark. Juveniles are light grey to olive, darkening with age to olive green, dark olive, greyish brown or gunmetal grey, with darker posterior mottling that may form oblique bars. The belly is usually lighter than the body, with faint dark mottling.”

Marais said he has never seen a black mamba anywhere near black, despite having worked with hundreds of individuals over the past 45 years.

However, he has seen the odd darkish individual, especially specimens about to shed, but they are few and far between. Central Namibia has some of the darkest mambas which may be near black towards the tail.

He said he also spoke to snake rescuer Nick Evans who has dealt with well over 1 000 black mambas in the greater Durban area over the past 10 years, and he has never seen one anywhere near black. Byron Zimmerman, who removes snakes in the Hillcrest area, has dealt with more than 450 black mambas in the past 15 years. And he has never encountered one anywhere near black.

In his book Snakes of Rhodesia (1975) Don Broadley states that the name black mamba is misleading as most specimens are brown or grey. He also mentions that the name is too well established to change but suggests brown mamba or black-mouthed mamba.

Charles Pitman, in his book A Guide to the Snakes of Uganda (1974) also states that black is a misnomer. R.C.H. Sweeney, in his book Snakes of Nyasaland (1961) uses the common name black-mouthed mamba and states the following: ‘This snake is often called “black” mamba in English and is well-known by this name, but since all forms are not even dark in colour and no truly back specimens have ever been recorded, I prefer to use the common name given above’.

“So where does the name black mamba come from? In my book Complete Guide to Snakes of Southern Africa, I mention that it is supposedly derived from the colour of the inside of the mouth, which is an inky black. Some herpetologists go along with that, but others disagree,” Marais said.

“I discussed this with my colleague Luke Kemp who came up with another idea. The first black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) was described by Günther back in 1864. The individual used for the description (the ‘type’) would have been fixed in formalin and then preserved in alcohol and shipped to Europe awaiting further investigation and description. We know that preserved specimens often go dark in colour and there is a good chance that this was the case. For now, we will certainly stick with ‘black mamba’.”

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