Ask most people to name Africa's deadliest snake, and the black mamba usually comes up first. The black mamba is "widely considered the world's deadliest snake," pointing to its potent venom and its habit of striking more than once when it feels cornered. But the snake's fearsome reputation can make it easy to forget that it isn't tied to one patch of jungle or a single game reserve. As per National Geographic, it actually turns up across a huge stretch of sub-Saharan Africa, and it tends to avoid thick rainforest in favour of savanna, scrubland and rocky hillsides. So where exactly does it live? The answer stretches from the open plains of East Africa right down to the drier bushveld further south.
According to Wikipedia, the snake's preferred terrain is "moderately dry environments such as light woodland and scrub, rocky outcrops and semi-arid savanna"; it can be found in moister savanna and lowland forest. National Geographic's description of the species living in "the savannas and rocky hills of southern and eastern Africa." Countries that fall within its known range include 22 countries in total across sub-Saharan Africa. Its ten names taken from that wider list, not a ranking by numbers.
