The following article involves snake pictures, in order to avoid causing discomfort, please read carefully
Fierce look, typical attack posture
Puffed Viper may be the most widely distributed on the African continent The venomous snake is of course one of the most distinctive and well-known venomous snakes. In fact, they are distributed in all sub-Saharan Africa south of , except along the Gulf of Guinea along the narrow tropical rainforest and the Namib desert in the southwest.
The distribution area of the bulging sizzling
The bulging sizzling can adapt to various habitat environments, which reflects its successful survival strategy to a certain extent, but its favorite habitat is sparse Grassland or sparse bushland. Sometimes they also appear in arid areas, but the real desert zone does not exist. It may also appear around some forests, but no trace of them can be found in the tropical rain forest.
This is a huge venomous snake, although it is much smaller than its distant relative, , the Gabonese Viper . The average body length ranges from 0.8 meters to 1 meter, but populations distributed in some countries, such as Uganda, Kenya, have individual specimens measuring more than 1.9 meters. Even with a strong bulging sizzling, the weight of an individual at 1.9 meters can't compare to a Gabon sizzling of the same length. Even if the appearance is not as gorgeous as Gabon's sizzle, it is a kind of poisonous snake with a unique personality, especially their grumpy temper.
The moment when the bulging sizzling viper attacks
In some parts of Africa, the bulging sizzling often grows to a larger average size, which may be related to the local environment. For example, in the protected area of South Africa, the most common venomous snakes in this area are black mamba and Mozambique cobras. Puffy vipers are rare.Their body length can reach 1.2-1.3 meters on average. Puffed Viper has a strong torso. The neck is smaller than the head, the head and neck are distinct, and the eyes have vertical pupils. It crawls up similarly to other Sizzlers, and like caterpillars, it uses the muscles of the abdomen to move forward slowly.
caterpillar-like crawling
The color of the individual also varies from region to habitat; the color of the back may be brown, cream, light yellow or gray; there are even some unusual rare objects In the plains of Namibia, some people have also found almost completely gray individuals without any specific patterns. This may be some variant individuals, which are rare.
Like other vipers, bulging vipers are also good at ambushes. It seems that the bulkiness of their bodies limits their ability to move. They prefer to stay in one place and remain motionless than other snakes, just waiting for the prey to come. Usually it’s at night. It’s often in the sun during the day. Sadly, it’s also time for local cobra activities at night. It’s not a good thing to meet them.
Meet the Mozambique poisonous cobra
On some low temperature nights, in some abundant areas, you may see an astonishing number of them or hovering on slopes or paths, even if they are Terrestrial snakes, during the time after the rain, they will not hesitate to climb on the low bushes to rest, and seem to hate the moisture to get their bodies wet.
It is one of the most dangerous African venomous snakes. This is not for its venom toxicity. In fact, regardless of the length of the fangs or the amount of venom detoxification, in the family distributed on the African continent, it does not It is not among the best, and its toxicity is not superior to that of its relative, Gabon Sizzle. But this does not affect people's fear of it. Even the venomous black mamba snake on the African continent is not the snake that causes the most deaths. They are far away from human living areas without a few people throughout the year.
and the bulging sizzling is different,Since the distribution range is very wide, it often appears around the area where humans live, which undoubtedly increases the probability of conflict between humans and snakes. They are good at hiding ambushes, have a grumpy temper, are large enough, have a large amount of venom, and attack fast. All these traits are imposed on the bulging sizzling viper, making it one of the highest number of biting snakes on the African continent. Discolored poisonous snake. It usually attacks without hesitation when people approach it unintentionally.
3 cm long fangs can expel 100 to 350 mg of venom at a time, and only 100 mg is required to cause death. According to the test value of LD50 in mice, intravenous injection is 0.4-2.0mg/kg, intraperitoneal injection is 0.9-3.7mg/kg, subcutaneous injection is 4.4-7.7mg/kg, and the toxicity intensity is moderate. In fact, the venom of snakes is a precious biological resource. For them, the venom should be used in the most useful way, that is, prey. In some biting incidents, dry bites without injection of venom are not uncommon, and only 5 of 10% of bite cases result in death.
Head structure and huge fangs
People who are usually bitten are those who walk barefoot or wear poorly protective shoes, or even those who work barehanded at night and collect wood, most likely to be bitten. Touching them or passing them without paying attention can lead to tragedy.
Puffed Vipers are called puffed belly because when they are disturbed, when angry, they will swell their abdomen, and at the same time they will make a deep roar like a nail stuck on a tire, rarely without any warning. In the case of direct bite. When it makes this sound, it will attack at an extremely fast speed, and even eject one-third of its body to launch an attack.
Encountered African Serval
The venom has cytotoxic and hematological toxic effects. People who are bitten will have severe local and systemic symptoms. Severe pain usually occurs, with obvious bleeding, ecchymosis, and swelling at the bite site, and tissue necrosis will occur when the bite gets worse, leading to amputation. There are very few cases of death within a few hours,It usually causes thrombosis and hemorrhage after severe, and within 2-4 days, due to some complications, such as cerebral hemorrhage or hypotension, septic shock lead to death. In the age of poor medical and health conditions in Africa, poverty and a severe lack of antivenoms, it is basically difficult for people who are bitten to get adequate treatment and follow-up tissue repair treatment, and high mortality is inevitable.
Puff viper currently has two subspecies, indicating that the subspecies is the most widely distributed area, and there is another subspecies distributed in Somalia. There are differences in body color or size between them, but the largest The difference is that the subspecies in Somalia have keel scales.
Encounter the black-necked poisonous cobra
Although some of the bulging sizzling vipers can grow to a very large size, they face many natural enemies on the African continent. Because of the wide range of distribution, they can encounter various natural enemies, birds of prey flying in the sky, cats on the ground, honey badger, mongoose, and various types Cobra, encountering these opponents, without exception, will become someone's dinner. The more famous battle of Puffing Sizzle was the poisoning of Brother Flathead for two hours, and he almost couldn't wake up.
They have strong reproductive ability, ovoviviparous, they can give birth to 50 to 60 young snakes, even as many as 80, and the number of individuals raised in a foreign zoo can reach as many as 156. No snake can expect it; Not because of such a large number of reproduction and strong adaptability, maybe they are now endangered animals.
Puffed Viper and Baby Snake
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