The puff adder (Bitis arietans) is a venomous snake species found in Africa and parts of the Arabian Peninsula. It's known for its strong venom and is found in many places, especially savannahs and grasslands. This snake is responsible for most snakebite deaths in Africa.
Illustration of Puff Adder
The puff adder was first described in 1820 by a German naturalist named Blasius Merrem.
Puff Adder Profile
When naming animals scientifically, it’s okay to have a little fun now and then. Boops boops and Aha ha are two good examples. And when naming snakes, there isn’t much more at the forefront of everyone’s mind than their fast and dangerous jaws. So, the genus Bitis seems like low-hanging fruit. This genus occurs throughout Africa and contains some of the most dangerous snakes on the continent. There are several well-named species in it (Bitis rhinoceros is a good one), but few are more appropriately named than Bitis arietans - the species name translates to “strikes violently."
General Information
- Scientific Name: Bitis arietans
- Common Name: Puff Adder
- Type: Venomous snake
- Family: Viperidae
- Conservation Status: Least Concern (IUCN)
Physical Characteristics
The puff adder is a very thick, medium-sized snake, measuring an average of about three feet long. B. a. An adult puff adder is usually about 1 meter (39 inches) long and quite thick. Large specimens can grow to over 1.5 m metres long, but it’s far more common for them to be around 1 metre or less. Some very large ones can be up to 1.9 meters (75 inches) long and weigh over 6 kilograms (13 pounds).
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It is characterized by tan, brown, gold, and even gray skin colors with irregular wavy patterns, alternating between dark and light, along the side of the body. Their dull, tan scales help them blend into grasslands or scrub. The subdued colors help them blend in with their natural habitats.
Their colors vary depending on where they live. They often have two dark bands on their head and dark stripes from their eyes to their upper lips. Their body color can be straw yellow, light brown, orange, or reddish-brown. They have 18 to 22 dark brown or black bands along their back and tail, often shaped like chevrons (V-shapes). Some puff adders have a lot of brown and black spots, making them look dusty or blackish.
Distinctive Features
- Head: The puff adder has a distinct triangle-shaped head that is wider than its neck and has a blunt, rounded snout. The head has two well-marked dark bands: one on the crown and the other between the eyes. On the sides of the head, there are two oblique dark bands or bars that run from the eye to the supralabials. Below, the head is yellowish-white with scattered dark blotches.
- Scales: Its body is covered in many rows of scales. Most of these scales have a ridge down the middle, making them feel rough. Midbody, the snake has 29-41 rows of dorsal scales. These are strongly keeled except for the outermost rows. The ventral scale count is 123-147, the subcaudals number 14-38. Females have no more than 24 subcaudals.
Habitat and Distribution
The puff adder can be found in various semi-arid locations, including savannas, open forests, and grasslands, throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Arabia, and Morocco. Puff adders are found in most of sub-Saharan Africa south to the Cape of Good Hope, including southern Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, southern Algeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, northern, eastern and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. These snakes also occur on the Arabian peninsula, where they are found in southwestern Saudi Arabia and Yemen. They have also been reported to be found in the Dhofar region of southern Oman.
These snakes need a source of water nearby and an adequate amount of coverage. Puff adders inhabit arid areas like savannas, shrublands, and rocky grasslands. They also occur in cultivated areas and around human settlements.
Map showing where B. arietans can be found
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They can be found throughout the African continent from Senegal to South Africa, except for deserts, tropical rainforests.
Behavior
Puff adders are solitary and nocturnal creatures. Puff adders are normally sluggish and rely on camouflage for protection. Normally a sluggish species, the puff adder relies on camouflage for protection.
Although they spend most of their time on the ground, these snakes are good swimmers and can also climb with ease; often they are found basking in low bushes. Although mainly terrestrial, these snakes are good swimmers and can also climb with ease; often they are found basking in low bushes. One specimen even was found 4.6 m above the ground in a densely branched tree.
If disturbed, these snakes will hiss loudly and continuously, adopting a tightly coiled defensive posture with the forepart of their body held in a taut "S" shape. At the same time, they may attempt to back away from the threat towards cover.
They may strike suddenly and fast, to the side as easily as forwards, before returning quickly to the defensive position, ready to strike again. During a strike, the force of the impact is so strong, and the long fangs penetrate so deeply, that prey items are often killed by the physical trauma alone. They can strike to a distance of about one-third of their body length, but juveniles can launch their entire bodies forwards in the process.
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Locomotion is primarily rectilinear, using the broad ventral scales in a caterpillar fashion and aided by its own weight for traction.
Unlike many snakes, the puff adder doesn’t slither away from approaching footsteps. Instead this thick-bodied poisonous viper makes a soft hiss or sigh and then strikes. The warning can be difficult to hear, and often the snake strikes before a human can get away.
When directly threatened or disturbed, they would rather stand their ground than flee.
What Can a Puff Adder Snake Bite Do to a Rhino?
Diet and Hunting
Puff adders are carnivores. The diet of the puff adder consists of rodents, birds, frogs, other reptiles, and even small deer. Their prey includes mammals, birds, amphibians, tortoises, and lizards. Juveniles consume smaller animals and insects as well.
Puff adders are ambush predators. Rather than hunting for prey, they hide and wait for it to come to them. They don't usually hunt by chasing their prey. Instead, they prefer to hide and wait for an animal to pass by, then ambush it. They will remain hidden and unmoving along the ground, sometimes for several weeks, while relying on chemical and heat signals to sense prey. After the prey wanders by, they strike out and bite it with their long fangs.
Reproduction
The puff adder’s mating season takes place every year between October and December, when females release a strong pheromone to attract a mate. Puff adders are polygynandrous (promiscuous) meaning that both males and females have multiple partners. Their mating season usually takes place between October and December. During this time females produce a pheromone to attract males, which engage in neck-wrestling combat dances.
Males neck-wrestle other males for the attention of females. After a lengthy courtship ritual and so-called combat dance, in which the snakes appear to writhe around and wrestle, the female will either choose to accept or reject him. A female in Malindi was followed by seven males.
Puff adders are viviparous, which means they give birth to live baby snakes rather than laying eggs. Once impregnated, the female will give birth to 20 to 50 live young (not eggs) in April. Puff adders are viviparous and females give birth to 50-60 live young after the gestation period that lasts 136-159 days. Newborns are 12.5-17.5 cm in length; they are completely independent at birth and are ready to care for themselves. The offspring will reach sexual maturity at four years old and have a typical lifespan of 13 to 16 years in captivity.
The clutches of young snakes can be large, with mothers giving birth to 20 to 40 young at a time, though there are records of up to 80 snakes being born at once. They give birth to large numbers of offspring; litters over 80 have been reported, while 50-60 are not unusual. Newborns are 12.5-17.5 cm (4.9-6.9 in) in length.
Venom
The puff adder produces a powerful toxin that directly attacks and destroys tissue. The puff adder's venom has cytotoxic effects and is one of the most toxic of any vipers based on LD50. The venom prevents the blood from properly forming clots. It can also directly lead to tissue death. In extreme cases, it can cause significant skin damage that spreads outward from the bite site.
Some of the effects of its toxin include bleeding, swelling, pain, nausea, local muscle weakness, and tenderness. The venom is intended to completely immobilize smaller prey so they cannot escape from or injure the snake in any way.
In humans, bites from this species can produce severe local and systemic symptoms. Based on the degree and type of local effect, bites can be divided into two symptomatic categories - those with little or no surface extravasation, and those with hemorrhages evident as ecchymosis, bleeding, and swelling. In both cases, severe pain and tenderness occur, but in the latter, widespread superficial or deep necrosis and compartment syndrome are seen. Serious bites cause limbs to become immovably flexed as a result of significant hemorrhage or coagulation in the affected muscles.
Other bite symptoms that may occur in humans include edema, which may become extensive, shock, watery blood oozing from the puncture wounds, nausea and vomiting, subcutaneous bruising, blood blisters that may form rapidly, and painful swelling of the regional lymph nodes. Swelling usually decreases after a few days, except for the area immediately around the bite site. Hypotension, together with weakness, dizziness, and periods of semi- or unconsciousness is also reported. If not treated carefully, necrosis will spread, causing skin, subcutaneous tissue, and muscle to separate from healthy tissue and eventually slough with serous exudate. The slough may be superficial or deep, sometimes down to the bone.
Although the venom is highly dangerous, the prognosis is generally quite good for people who receive polyvalent antivenom treatment in time.
The answer to that question depends on many factors, including age, health, and severity of the bite. The majority of people will end up living, even without the antivenom treatment, albeit with significant suffering. Because the effects work slowly, death usually takes two to four days without treatment.
Conservation Status
According to the IUCN Red List, the puff adder is considered to be a species of least concern. Puff adders are widely distributed thoughout their range and are not considered a threatened species. According to IUCN Red List, the Puff adder is locally common throughout its range but no overall population estimate is available.
In the wild, puff adders have several potential predators, including eagles, hornbills, warthogs, honey badgers, and cobras. Their dull colors enable them to blend in with the surrounding environment and avoid detection.
Ecological Role
Puff adders are important predators in their ecosystem as they control populations of many prey species they feed on. They also help control populations of pests as these snakes are often found near human settlements and prey on rodents. Young Puff adders prey on various insects and also can play a useful role for farmers.
Interesting Puff Adder Facts
- They’re the most widespread snakes in Africa: As a result, the puff adder is widespread across the vast majority of Sub-Saharan Africa and is the continent’s most widespread snake.
- They are highly venomous: Puff adders produce a highly potent venom and they do so in large amounts. Like the baboon vipers, they have very long fangs, and if they’re able to get them into you, you’re in for a bad day.
- They’re responsible for the most snake bite fatalities in Africa: This combination of factors means that the puff adder is the greatest contributor to snakebite fatalities in Africa. This is despite the fact that there are far more venomous snakes around.
- They strike violently: When threatened, they can strike just as easily sideways as they can forward and after each strike will return to a defensive pose ready to inflict another one. These strikes are astonishingly quick and carry enough force to stun or kill smaller prey just from the blunt and piercing trauma.
- They eat themselves to death: It appears that the puffer has never evolved to stop eating when full. Overfeeding, at best, leads to a pig puking session. At worst, the viper can be killed.
- They’re chemically camouflaged: Many predators hunt using their noses, so being able to cover your scent makes perfect sense. And it appears that puffadders can do this. Both dogs and meerkats, trained to sniff out snakes, struggle to pick up on the scent of a puff adder. The mechanism behind this chemical crypsis is not yet known but it does appear to be a real phenomenon.
Conservation Tips
- Practice ecotourism by being an advocate for the environment when you’re on vacation.
- During your travels, support, visit or volunteer with organizations that protect wildlife.
- Shop smart too! Choose your pets wisely, and do your research before bringing an animal home.
- Exotic animals don’t always make great pets. Many require special care and live for a long time.
- Tropical reptiles and small mammals are often traded internationally and may be victims of the illegal pet trade.
- If you see a snake in the wild, leave it alone and encourage others to do the same. Don’t assume it is a venomous species, and don’t attack it if it doesn’t pose a threat to your safety.
- Share the story of this animal with others.
