Mountain puff adder
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Mountain puff adder ( Bitis atropos ) |
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| Bitis atropos | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The mountain-puff adder , Bergpuffotter , viper or Atroposviper ( Bitis atropos ) is one within the family of Vipers (Viperidae) to the genus of puff adders ( Bitis ). The species was scientifically described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné . There are no known subspecies.
features
When fully grown, the mountain puff adder reaches an average total length of 30 to 40 cm. Total lengths of a maximum of 50 cm were measured in individual females in the wild. In captivity, they can even grow to be 60 cm long. The back of the snake is dark brown to olive gray in color. It has 2 rows of dark spots that are lined with white. They are bounded on both sides by a white or yellowish line. Below the line there are oval or y-shaped spots. The strongly keeled and narrow scales, which surround the middle of the body of the snake, are arranged one above the other like roof tiles. The color on the ventral side ranges from a plain white-gray to dark speckles. The head of the mountain puff adder stands out clearly from the trunk. The nostrils are aligned upwards.
distribution
The mountain puff adder lives very isolated in the mountainous regions in southern Africa. Its main occurrence is in the regions of the Inyanga Highlands and the Chimanimani Mountains in eastern Zimbabwe and near Mozambique . They also live in the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa , which also include areas of the South African Republic , the Natal Province , Lesotho , the Free State Province and the Cape Province . The snake hunter Donald Schultz discovered a mountain puff adder in the mountain ranges of Swaziland . This specimen was used for poison research, as only very few specimens of this species were caught before.
habitat
The mountain puff adder lives in a variety of different habitats, but prefers relatively cool environments with lots of precipitation . In the northern part of their range they only live at an altitude of up to 3,000 m, as the winters there are cold and dry and the summers are warm and humid. In Zimbabwe, however, they are only found at altitudes above 1500 m. They usually live in areas with mountain slopes and stone fields , but also on meadow-like platos with bushes and shrubs.
Way of life
The mountain puff adder is diurnal. She likes to be in the undergrowth and bushes. When in danger, or when irritated, it hisses loudly and audibly, but then bites very quickly and very wildly. The mountain puff adder gives birth to its offspring alive. Their diet consists mainly of rodents, lizards, frogs and toads.
Poison
The poison of the mountain puff adder is a relatively strong, especially blood-damaging poison, i.e. a hematoxin . But it also has a lower proportion of a nerve poison, i.e. a neurotoxin . However, unlike the Gaboon viper , the poison has no effect on blood clotting. The poison of the mountain puff adder destroys the blood vessels and therefore leads to heavy tissue bleeding and the development of large edema. There are also disorders of the central nervous system . The first symptoms after a bite are nausea, vomiting, and pain, as well as sub-bleeding and edema with blistering around the bite site. Depending on the size of such sub-bleeding and edema, this can lead to considerable tissue destruction . Furthermore, extensive edema can withdraw so much fluid from the organism that it can lead to a so-called hypovolemic shock state . The damaged skin areas are also prone to infections such as B. for a scarlet fever infection. Gangrene , a certain form of necrosis , can also develop . The neurotoxic toxic effects can occur after about 30 minutes to 1 hour paresthesia on the tongue and lips. Other possible consequences are blurred vision, a loss of the sense of smell and touch and increased hearing , ptosis , eye muscle paralysis and general weakness of the facial muscles and speech disorders . Without an antiserum, these nerve disorders disappear at the earliest after 4 to 6 hours and at the latest after 4 to 6 days. Even without treatment, healthy adults are unlikely to die. But due to the tissue-destroying potential of the venom of this snake (edema, hyphemorrhage), permanent damage is to be expected in the area around the bite site. It is estimated that if there are too few fatalities, the type of snake that leads to the death is carefully determined, so that the mountain puff adder is likely to have too many kills attached.
Antiserum
The use of an antitoxin is only necessary and useful in the case of very severe poisoning, not least because the administration of an antiserum is always associated with the risk of an allergic reaction up to life-threatening anaphylactic shock . Therefore, its application must always be carefully considered in each individual case and should only be carried out by an experienced doctor and, if possible, in an appropriate center. Because of the extensive edema, the immediate infusion of physiological saline solution is often necessary. The hematocrit and the plasma electrolytes must be checked continuously and deviations from the norm treated therapeutically if necessary. The electrolyte shifts can lead to cardiac arrhythmias up to and including cardiac arrest . As with burns, the wound area should also be treated with antibiotics . A tetanus vaccination is very useful if there is no vaccination protection.
literature
- GA Boulenger : Catalog of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III: Containing the ... Viperidæ. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). Taylor and Francis, London 1896, pp. 495-496: Bitis atropos.
- Bill Branch: Field Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa . 3rd, revised. Edition. Ralph Curtis Books, Sanibel Island, Florida, 2004, ISBN 0-88359-042-5 , pp. 115-116 + Plate 12: Bitis atropos.
- DG Broadley, EV Cock: Snakes of Rhodesia .: Longman Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe 1875.
- DG Broadley: FitzSimons' Snakes of Southern Africa . J Ball & AD Donker Publishers, Parklands (South Africa) 1990.
- A.-M.-C. Duméril, G. Bibron, A. Duméril: Erpétologie générale ou histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. Tome septième. Deuxième partie. Paris 1854, pp. 1432-1433: Echidna atropos.
- VFM FitzSimons: Snakes of Southern Africa . Purnell and Sons, Cape Town, Johannesburg 1962.
- VFM FitzSimons: A Field Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa. Collins Publishers, London 1980.
- C. Linnaeus: Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, diferentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio Decima, Reformata. L. Salvius. Stockholm 1758, p. 216: Coluber atropos.
- Bitis atropos. on: Eco Travel Africa. Accessed October 27, 2011.
- T. Phelps: Old World Vipers. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt 2010. [critical review in Sauria. 33 (3), p. 19 and HR 43, p. 503.]
- T. Ulber, E. Ulber: The mountain otters: a terraristically unknown color variety. In: TI magazine. 123, 1995, pp. 40-43.
Web links
- Mountain puff adder on IUCN
- Bitis atropos in The Reptile Database
- Mountain puff adder on biodiversityexplorer.org
Individual evidence
- ^ " Bitis atropos ". Integrated Taxonomic Information System . Retrieved July 24, 2006.
- ^ GV Haagner, J. Hurter: Additional Distribution Records of the Berg Adder Bitis atropos in the South-eastern Transvaal and Swaziland. In: African Protected Area Conservation and Science. 31 (1), 1988.
- ↑ RW McDiarmid, JA Campbell , T. Touré: Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Volume 1, Herpetologists' League, Washington DC 1999, ISBN 1-893777-01-4 .
- ↑ Video proof here (in French)
- ↑ S. Spawls, B. Branch: The Dangerous Snakes of Africa. Ralph Curtis Books, 1995, ISBN 0-88359-029-8 .
- ↑ D. Mallow, D. Ludwig, G. Nilson: True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida, 2003, ISBN 0-89464-877-2 .
- ↑ Habitat of the mountain puff adder ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
