Dendroaspis viridis and Dendroaspis jamesoni

N/A

Hi Drew,
I hope you know well, what you are going to do.
The mainy "big" WC Mambas are,very venomous, not easy to sell,need space and a lot of work.
Except you have some coustomers,who take them right after import,out of your hands.
This wont be souch a easy money thing,cheap buy + profit in US,so better leave them in Africa.
There is one answer to your 2 questions.
Dendroaspis j. kaimosae is the only one with a black tail and a grenish body.
D. j. jamesoni and D. viridis,you need a scale count,if they from west Africa,imported.
Becz. the two will overlap in some Western Afriican Parts.
Hans

Hard to explain but actually quite diffrent looking when seen in the flesh, sorry i couldnt be more helpful

Drew Edwards wrote:

I plan to import mambas in the future....

Just leave them in the wild.

http://www.venomland.net/t2678-physical-differences-between-d-jamesoni-jamesoni-and-d-viridis

Quote :

The mainy "big" WC Mambas are,very venomous, not easy to sell

Not a good argument in my opinion - or has it been proofed that captive born adults are less venomous?

Mambas, independent from being wild caught or captive born, shouldn't be "easy to sell" anyway, just because one cannot sell'em to everybody and experienced keepers able to house them properly and to handle big adults safe are rare.

I bought a couple of adult, very large wild caught Dendroaspis viridis 20 years ago - these specimens died after a long life in my terrariums (with some breedings) only because their time was over.
I will soon buy anouther couple of wild caught adults to replace them.....

Dendroaspis jamesoni seems to be another story. I would never buy fresh wild caught specimens, but established, long term captives or captive borns (which are quite rare!).
Jamesoni, especially the kaimosae subspecies, is known to be more problematic, having problems with internal parasites and skin diseases.

Well doing specimens of D. jamesoni should be left in the hands of serious, experienced people who are able to not only keep'em alive, but to breed'em in order to become a solid stock.
This should be done without importing large numbers and selling them to anybody.

Unfortunately these imports will continue as long as this species is sold relatively cheap and easy to import ......

Many species have been established in our terrariums by importing large numbers over years or even decades. Remember Bothriechis schlegelii (then called Bothrops schlegelii) - imported in large numbers 30 or 40 years ago - all of'em died sooner or later, no breedings at all (except some wild caughts gravid females giving birth in captivity).
Nowadays we breed more of them than really can be sold....

Some species like D. jamesoni should only be imported by serious, experienced breeders following that main goal: finally establishing this amazing species in the world's collections - without "using up" too many by killing them due to capture and import stress and giving them to anybody going for a quick profit.
regards
Peter