Viper

A viper is a venomous snake, belonging to the Viperidae family (consisting of roughly 150 species). A viper is characterised by its long erectile fangs, which are folded back when not in use. They also have triangle-shaped heads with a distinctly narrower neck. (The broad areas of the head house the venom glands.) Their eyes have iriseses like a cat's eye (but if you are close enough to see that, you're probably too close!) Being 0.3-3 m long, vipers feed on small animals, which are injected with venom and then dragged along until they die.

Common Name	Technical Name	Geographic Range
Bushmaster	Lachesis muta	South America
Bush Viper	Atberis squamiger	Angola, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya
Cyclades Blunt-Nosed Viper	Vipera lebetina schweizeri	Greece
Crossed Viper	Vipera berus berus	British Isles, Russia, China, Spain
European Asp	Vipera aspis aspis	Austria, Germany, Italy, France
Fea's Viper	Azemips feae	Burma, SE Tibet, China
Gaboon Viper	Bitis gabonica gabonica	Most areas of Africa
Horned Desert Viper	Cerastes cerastes cerastes	Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq
Leaf-Nosed Viper	Eristocopbis macmaboni	Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan
Long-Nosed Viper	Vipera ammodytes ammodytes	Hungary, Austria, Italy, Romania
Palestinian Viper	Vipera palaestinae	Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan
Rhinoceros Viper	Bitis nasicornis	Kenya, Uganda, Angola, Zaire
Rough-Scaled Tree Viper	Atberis bispidus	Kenya, Uganda, Zaire
Russel's Viper	''Vipera russellii russellii	Pakistan, India
Saw-Scaled Viper	Echis carinatus leakeyi	Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia

See also: Adder

Reference

• Living Snakes of the World in Color by John M. Mehrtens, 1987. ISBN 0-8069-6460X

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For the Dodge automobile called Viper, see Dodge Viper.