Pre-reading

&

background

building!

Connect to Your Life• Some animals naturally prey on other

animals. These are called natural enemies.

• What natural enemies (both common and exotic) in the animal kingdom can you name?

• With a partner, brainstorm as many natural enemies that you can (use either a sheet of paper or your iPad) and be prepared to share with the class.

Background Building• Cobras can be found in Africa, Australia,

& Asia. Although all species form hoods by widening their beck ribs, the Indian cobra, which is about five and a half feet in length, has a distinctive spectacle mark on its hood.

• The venom of the cobra is enclosed in a groove in the short fangs at the front of the mouth. About ten percent of cobra-bite victims die. The strength of the poison varies from species to species.

Background Building

• The Indian cobra is not the largest or most poisonous of the species, but it kills several thousand people each year because of its habit of going into houses at dusk to catch rats.

Indian Cobra Informational Video

Background Building• Cobras feed mostly on small animals. Depending

on the species, they either have live offspring or lay eggs. The female Indian cobra lay her eggs in a hollow tree or on the ground and guards them until they hatch.

• Snake charmers often use cobras because their strikers are slow and enough for the skillful charmer to avoid. The snakes sway in response to the charmers movements, not his music.

Snake Charmer Video

Background Building• If you lived in India, you certainly would

know the mongoose and the cobra as a pair of natural enemies – a pair that will fight to the death.

• The mongoose, growing only to a length of 16 inches, seems hardly a match for the poisonous cobra, a snake that averages 6 feet in length and 6 inches around.

Cobra vs. Mongoose

Rikki Tikki Tavi

By: Rudyard Kipling• This story takes place in India, many years ago, when the British still ruled that country.

• The family in the story lives in a cantonment, which is like an army base. The father is in the British army.

• The story is about a conflict that takes place between two deadly snakes and a brave little mongoose named Rikki Tikki Tavi.

immensely: (adv.) enormously.Rikki is immensely brave.The Indian cobras are immensely powerful.

cowered: (v.) crouched and trembled in fear.Darzee, who is a coward, cowered before the

snakes.Rikki cowered before no one.

valiant: (adj.) brave and determinedRikki is a valiant hero.

consolation: (n.) comfortSnakes get no consolation from Rikki.

impotent: (adj.) powerlessWith all but her last eggs destroyed, Nagaina felt impotent against Rikki.

VOCABULARY