The Ashe’s Spitting Cobra (Naja ashei) is a venomous elapid African snake and a reptile. It is also called the Giant Spitting Cobra.

The Ashe’s Spitting Cobra is brown, olive, black, grey, or reddish-brown with orange or pink bars on its neck. Its belly is paler. It has a big, broad head. It has smooth scales.

Ashe’s Spitting Cobra

It is the largest spitting cobra, measuring about 200 centimetres (78 inches) in length.

The Ashe’s Spitting Cobra is native to eastern and southern Africa, mainly in Kenya, and specifically in the west, central, southern, and coastal areas of Kenya. It is also found in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Somalia. It prefers moist and dry savannahs and semi-deserts.

It is terrestrial, living on the ground and not in trees, but it can climb. It is nocturnal, active at night.

It can spit without spreading its head. Most cobras spread its head to look wider and fiercer. It spits into the eyes of its prey, which causes loss of vision. It eats frogs, toads, young birds, bird eggs, lizards, mice, and rats.

The female Ashe’s Giant Spitting Cobra lays 8-20 eggs.

Ashe’s Spitting Cobra

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM