Puff adder
Bitis arietans
— Where the name comes from
Arietans comes from aries, the ram: it means “charging like a ram”, and describes how this snake inflates itself, hisses very loudly and lunges forward with its whole body. Bitis is a name coined in the nineteenth century, perhaps from the Latin betis. The Italian and English names, puff adder, both look at the puffing.
— Facts
- Group
- Reptiles · Reptilia
- Order
- Squamates
- Habitat
- Savannah, grassland, scrub, farmland, footpaths
- Range
- Sub-Saharan Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula
- Size
- 90–130 cm, up to 190 cm; 3–6 kg
- Diet
- Rodents, birds, amphibians, lizards
- Lifespan
- 15 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It waits motionless on the path for days, trusting to camouflage.
- 02
The venom destroys tissue and causes amputations more than quick deaths.
- 03
It bears as many as eighty young, the record among snakes.
— What sets it apart
It causes more casualties than any other African snake, and the reason is not the venom but the temperament: while cobras and mambas flee at the first footfall, this viper does not move. It is broad, slow and perfectly camouflaged in the dust of a path, and it is counting on that; if somebody treads on it, it bites. Infrared filming has shown it can stay in the same spot for two weeks, and that even trained tracking dogs walk past without scenting it.
