Across Sub-Saharan Africa: teacher key

Black Mambas, grade 5 edition, written for 5th grade. Follow the black mamba across a wide part of Africa: its size, colour and name, how fast it has been reported to slither, how it moves, how its day runs, what it eats, its venom, its conservation status and how its eggs hatch.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Where do black mambas live?
   • Across a wide part of sub-Saharan Africa (answer)
   • Only in Europe
   • Only on islands
2. What does the species name polylepis mean?
   • Many teeth
   • Many scales (answer)
   • Long tail
3. About how fast has a black mamba been reported slithering, at most?
   • About 2 kilometres an hour
   • About 90 kilometres an hour
   • About 20 kilometres an hour (answer)
4. Why are two clutch sizes given?
   • Accounts give different sizes (answer)
   • Mambas lay one egg
   • Clutches are never counted
5. What does the IUCN Red List rate the black mamba, as of November 2026?
   • Extinct
   • Least Concern (answer)
   • Vulnerable
6. What does clutch mean in: a clutch of 6 to 17 eggs?
   • A kind of snake
   • A nest of leaves
   • The eggs laid at one time (answer)

Words

• savannas: grassy lands
• polylepis: many scales
• refuge: safe place
• dassies: small mammals
• neurotoxic: harming nerves
• clutch: eggs together