April 29th 2014
One of my snake rescue team member informed me that he had rescued a snake last night...from Aarey milk colony,Goregaon(east). He told that the snake he rescued was a cobra... so i said wait let me have a look before you release it...
Spectacled Cobra (Naja naja) are very common through out India... But the cobra that was rescued, was something different and interesting... It was complete black morph of a Spectacled Cobra... with no spectacle mark on its hood... I was so amazed and glad to see such snake...which is rare and this type of black morph in Cobras are found only in Rajasthan(India)... Thinking and searching for more than two months for the reason behind these kind of color difference with in the species of snake... I finally got my answer...
And the answer was Genetic mutation...!!!
In simple terms a snake is born with a series of genes that are responsible for colors and patterns. Each gene contains an allele from each parent of that snake. These allele's are responsible for the pattern and color of the snake. There are normal alleles, which are responsible for normal wild type patterns and coloration, and there are mutant alleles that are responsible for genetic mutations, which cause either pattern or color abnormalities, and sometimes even both pattern and color abnormalities at the same time. We call snakes with these genetic mutations (morphs).
Thank you all for reading my post...!!!
One of my snake rescue team member informed me that he had rescued a snake last night...from Aarey milk colony,Goregaon(east). He told that the snake he rescued was a cobra... so i said wait let me have a look before you release it...
Spectacled Cobra (Naja naja) are very common through out India... But the cobra that was rescued, was something different and interesting... It was complete black morph of a Spectacled Cobra... with no spectacle mark on its hood... I was so amazed and glad to see such snake...which is rare and this type of black morph in Cobras are found only in Rajasthan(India)... Thinking and searching for more than two months for the reason behind these kind of color difference with in the species of snake... I finally got my answer...
In simple terms a snake is born with a series of genes that are responsible for colors and patterns. Each gene contains an allele from each parent of that snake. These allele's are responsible for the pattern and color of the snake. There are normal alleles, which are responsible for normal wild type patterns and coloration, and there are mutant alleles that are responsible for genetic mutations, which cause either pattern or color abnormalities, and sometimes even both pattern and color abnormalities at the same time. We call snakes with these genetic mutations (morphs).
Thank you all for reading my post...!!!
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