Dendroaspis angusticeps

A shot of a eastern green mamba, which I took a couple of month ago.
Can anyone explain me why the mamba left her mouth open for a long time? Eventually to cool down a bit?

Dendroaspis angusticeps Angust10

Hello Guenter
Mambas do sometimes leave their mouth open for seconds, this belongs to typical defensive behaviour like aposematic tongue flicking and the well known horizontal head nodding. I observed this in angusticeps and polylepis already.
If they're doing it for minutes or even longer, they might have a problem, and I think the specimen on Your picture does.
The head of this guy doesn't appeal to me at all; see the lower labials curved inside, and the uppers jaw outer line isn't that straight as it should be in healthy animals.
In my opinion, it's high time to see a veterinarian.
Greetings from cold and rainy Carinthia
Peter

well, the pics was taken a couple of months ago (excellent Picture by the way).. so it might be not necessary anymore... i have seen this behavior in WC animals with upper respiratory infections.. the deforming of the jaws could be done by stomatitis which come along with the respiratory problems.. well, i cant see any stomatitis on the picture, it might be health out by now - lets hope for the best ...

nice picture again

Cheer
Mario

It was in a Salzburg reptile zoo ... when I visited it again some month later, the mamba showed still the same behaviour.

On the terrarium were the title "Green Mamba" which is IMHO incorrect (d. viridis is the Green Mamba for me). Ev. "leafgreen mamba" or "eastern green mamba" would be OK for the angusticeps, right?

Anyway ... I'm not a herpetologist at all and thought, they might know how to handle such snakes because e.g. the pythons there seemed to be in an excellent constitution.

Greetings from the even as cold and rainy Upper Austria!
Guenter

I knew where the picture was taken, Günther Prem, the Curator of Reptiles there, is a excellent caretaker.
If it's a disease at all, it could be some "light", non lethal form and the snake lives more or less well with it.
Could be a very, very old specimen, as another possibility.
Anyway, if my angusticeps looks that way, some alarm bells would ring...
It's a matter of fact, that the common or leafgreen Mamba usually shows more green than the real green Mamba, it's leading to some confusion on the visitors side here often.
Cheers
Peter

Guenter Leitenbauer wrote:: It was in a Salzburg reptile zoo ... when I visited it again some month later, the mamba showed still the same behaviour.

On the terrarium were the title "Green Mamba" which is IMHO incorrect (d. viridis is the Green Mamba for me). Ev. "leafgreen mamba" or "eastern green mamba" would be OK for the angusticeps, right?

Anyway ... I'm not a herpetologist at all and thought, they might know how to handle such snakes because e.g. the pythons there seemed to be in an excellent constitution but now I am not so sure anymore ...

Greetings from the even as cold and rainy Upper Austria!
Guenter

Günter...

thats why we using scientific names instead..
the common name for a D.angusticeps is Grüne Mamba or Gewöhnliche Mamba (which means green mamba or common mamba)... confusing as always with common names..

by the way, pythons are much harder than mambas - somebody has healthy looking pythons means nothing therefor...
but if peter said he knows the guy and he is good - i believe him.. if the snake shows the same behavior later, it might be as i said before.. i still have a Naja philippinesis here, same strange behavior. after years, she still thinks she is sick and she belives she need to breath with an open mouth.. funny

As said before: a fine reptile zoo and rather large terrariums with many plants - always a positive sign IMHO.

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