Common adder
The common adder, also known as the European viper, is a venomous snake native to various regions in Europe and Asia. Characterized by its light brown body adorned with dark zigzag patterns, this species features a broad, triangular head that houses venom glands, enabling it to deliver a potent bite through its hollow fangs. Common adders typically range from 16 to 80 centimeters in length, with an average size of approximately 60 centimeters. They inhabit diverse environments, including forests and sand dunes, and are found as far north as Great Britain, extending across the Arctic Circle and along the Mediterranean coast.
These snakes are known for their unique adaptations, such as brilles, transparent coverings that protect their eyes, and vertically elliptical pupils that enhance their vision. They primarily consume small mammals, lizards, and birds, using their heat-sensing pits to detect prey. Common adders hibernate during the cold months, returning to the same location annually, known as a hibernaculum. They reproduce in spring, giving birth to live young that are around 16 to 18 centimeters long. In the wild, common adders can live between 10 to 15 years. Despite their venomous nature, they are often confused with harmless grass snakes, leading to misconceptions and unnecessary killings of these non-venomous counterparts.
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Common adder
The common adder, called the European viper, is a venomous snake found in Europe and Asia. They are brown snakes with an identifying zigzag pattern.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Viperidae
Genus: Vipera
Species: Berus
Common adders have light brown bodies with dark zigzag markings across their backs. Like other vipers, their heads are broad and triangular to hold venom, or poison, glands. When common adders strike, they use venom glands to fill two hollow front fangs with venom. Common adders also have brilles and vertically elliptical pupils. Brilles are transparent, or clear, coverings over their eyes. Common adders do not have eyelids, so brilles protect their eyes from dirt and dust. They also have vertically elliptical pupils. Pupils are the black areas in the center of the irises, or colored parts of the eyes, which open and close to let in light. Vertically elliptical pupils have the black portion running up and down in the center of the iris. Common adders grow to 6 1/3 and 31 1/2 inches (16 to 80 centimeters) long, though the average length is 23 1/2 inches (60 centimeters).
Common adders live in various habitats like sand dunes and forests. They are found as far north as Great Britain and are widespread throughout Europe, the Arctic Circle, Asia's Pacific coast, and the Mediterranean Sea. As common adders slither, they flick their sensitive tongues to examine their surroundings. Their tongues pick up chemicals and bring them back inside their mouths, placing them in special organs designed to identify the chemicals. This information helps them find prey, identify predators, and find mates. Common adders spend the coldest part of the year in hibernation. Hibernation is when an animal hides and rests during the cold season. Common adders hibernate under stones, in crevices, in other animals' burrows, or in tunnels. Once a common adder finds a place to hibernate, it returns to that same place every year for hibernation. This den is called the hibernaculum.
Grass snakes are often mistaken for common adders, but they are harmless. They share some of the same range, particularly in Europe, but their markings are different. Grass snakes and common adders have different eyes, markings, and patterns. People kill many grass snakes each year because they look like common adders.
Common adders eat various prey like small rodents, lizards, and young birds. They are carnivores, or meat-eating reptiles. Like other vipers, common adders kill their prey with a deadly venomous bite. They then begin the process of swallowing the animal whole. Like other pit vipers, common adders have two holes above their lips called pits. These pits are sensory organs. They are used to identify infrared heat rays. These rays are very specific kinds of temperatures that living things emit, or give off. Common adders use their ability to sense infrared heat rays to help them identify the difference between an animal and its surroundings. This is especially helpful when these snakes are trailing prey.
Mating occurs once each spring. Common adders are ovoviviparous snakes, which means the young develop and hatch from eggs while still inside their mothers' bodies and are born alive. Female common adders give birth to litters of 8 to 12 young. Young common adders are about 6 1/3 to 7 inches (16 to 18 centimeters) long at birth.
The life span of common adders is between 10 and 15 years in the wild.
Bibliography
Muir, Kat. "Vipera Berus." Animal Diversity Web, animaldiversity.org/accounts/Vipera‗berus. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.
Nelson, Gail B. "Common European Adder." A-Z Animals, 19 July 2023, a-z-animals.com/animals/common-european-adder. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.