![]() Why spit instead of bite? Spitting is strictly for defense, the experts say. The venom hits the floor of the fang hole, bounces upward and out," Altimari said. "When the snake contracts its venom gland, it squeezes a small amount out at high pressure. Those that can have a specially modified fang with a small hole in it. The lesson is clear: If ever you're confronted by a spitting cobra (common in Africa and Asia) stand back at least 10 feet (3 meters) and protect your eyes. In the worst case these burns can lead to blindness. The sensitive cornea reacts with severe stinging pain. What happens if a cobra's venom lands in your eye? The cocktail of toxins consists of nerve poisons and other components harmful to tissue. The Mozambique cobras hit their target every time. The evaluation of the traces of venom on the photos and the visor revealed how accurate the both species' aim is: The black-necked spitting cobras hit at least one eye eight out of ten times. Only two cobras reacted to photos of faces. "Movements involving the hand elicited no response from any of the snakes." "The snakes really do spit only at moving faces," was her first finding. She recorded the spitting process using a high-speed video camera. In her experiments she either stood face-to-face with them-protected by a plastic visor-or she used photos. Katja Tzschätzsch used four red Mozambique and six black-necked spitting cobras. "It was necessary to actually show this in order to ask the next question: How do cobras identify the eyes in different animals and humans?" said Guido Westhoff, the professor at the University of Bonn who supervised Tzschätzsch's work. If everyone knows spitting cobras aim for the eyes, why ask the question? "Anyone at the zoo working with this type of snake wears a face mask because that's usually where they aim," added Dino Ferri, assistant curator for reptiles and amphibians at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. "These animals always aim for keepers' goggles," he said. Sam Lee, assistant supervisor in the Bronx Zoo's department of herpetology, concurs, again based on personal experience. Our keepers at the Philadelphia Zoo always wore face masks." My experience has been that the red spitter and the black-neck went right for your eyes. "But I'd be surprised if anyone in the field thinks otherwise. It's mostly been anecdotal evidence," said Bill Altimari, a herpetologist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. ![]() "To my knowledge there hasn't been a lot of work done on whether they actually aim for the eyes. ![]() The lab results don't surprise snake experts. Katja Tzschätzsch, a research student at the University of Bonn in Germany, has demonstrated that the red Mozambique spitting cobra and the black-necked spitting cobra deliberately aim for the eyes of whomever or whatever they feel threatened by. If you're unlucky and by some horrible chance you do, a word of advice: Close your eyes. but is not meant to be exhaustive, particularly with regard to derivative verbs." AWE has been quite selective in its drawing on that list.If you're smart, you'll never come within six feet (two meters) of a spitting cobra. The list "contains most of the irregular verbs in present-day English. ![]() This is one of the "the 250 or so irregular verbs" listed in Quirk 1985. The forms of the irregular verb 'to spit' are: This (regular) verb can be used figuratively in the days of duelling, for example, one man might spit the other with a thrust of the rapier. The larger versions of these on which, for example, a whole pig or even an ox can be roasted over an open fire are called spits. This is in origin a term from cooking: cooks commonly spit kebabs, for example, by placing them on skewers. There is also a regular verb (spit ~ spitted ~ spitted) meaning 'to pierce or transfix'. This page is about the irregular verb 'to spit', meaning 'to project out of the mouth'.
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