Black-necked Spitting Cobra

• It does not spit at random: it aims for the eyes and adjusts its shot to follow the movement of the attacker's head, with an accuracy that experiments have measured at more than ninety per cent of hits at two metres.
• Its fangs have the exit hole on the front face rather than at the tip, an anatomical redesign that turns the fang into a spray nozzle.
• The ability to spit evolved independently at least three times among the African and Asian cobras, and a 2021 study linked it to the appearance of our own hominin ancestors in Africa.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (reptile)

Habitat and environment

Savannah, dry scrub, open woodland and farmland of sub-Saharan Africa

Sexual maturity

3 years

Gestation / incubation

90 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

15 eggs

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Naja nigricollis