Gray Snake, Blue-Black Mouth: teacher key

Black Mambas, grade 8 edition, written for 8th grade. The black mamba up close: where it lives, its size and colours, its names, its reported speed and movement, its senses, its day, its food, its venom, its relatives, its conservation status and how it breeds.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. How does a black mamba pick up particles from the air?
   • It flicks out its tongue and places them in the vomeronasal organ (answer)
   • It breathes through its tail
   • It listens with outer ears
2. What does a black mamba use in place of external ears?
   • Its blue-black mouth
   • It has none, but it detects vibrations in the ground (answer)
   • Its scales glow
3. What did the 2015 study describe in black mamba venom?
   • No toxins at all
   • Only one toxin
   • Two main kinds of toxin that work together (answer)
4. Why is the 3.5 pound weight figure uncertain?
   • The source does not say which animals were weighed (answer)
   • It was measured in tons
   • It is for a different animal
5. What is the black mamba's IUCN Red List rating, as of November 2026?
   • Extinct
   • Least Concern (answer)
   • Critically Endangered
6. What does refuge mean in: it returns to its refuge?
   • A loud noise
   • A kind of food
   • A safe place to rest (answer)

Words

• undulation: wavy movement
• vomeronasal: smell organ
• refuge: safe place
• toxins: venom proteins
• mambalgins: painkilling proteins
• Elapidae: snake family