What Is An Adder?

An adder is a venomous snake of the viper family. There are several numbers of adders in viper family with differences in their geographical ranges such as European adder (Europe and Asia); Death adder (Australia, New Guinea); Puff adder (Africa, southern Arabian Peninsula); Night adders (Sub-Saharan Africa). In general, these snakes feed with lizards and frogs as their main diet. Some species also eat insects, slow worms, weasels, moles, salamanders, rodents, toads. Death Adders are very short and fatty bodies. Death Adders are very poisonous and contain extremely toxic venom ranging from 0.4 – 0.5 mg/kg murine per bite. This causes an absolutely untreated death. The length of Puff Adders vary from very small (around 28cm) such as for the species B. schneideri to very lengthy (around 2m) such as B. gabonica. The Night Adders are basically tubby in structure and their length does not exceed 1 meter in general.

Adder is a kind of snake and belongs to the species of viper, a very famous kind of snakes. It could be found in the regions of Europe and northern Asia. Appearance wise, the adder is sometimes black and is sometimes dark grey in colour. The colour of the snake is patterned with a zigzag black line along the back of the adder, which could be segmented into dark spots.

The main food of adders is mice. They kill it first with their poison by injecting it through the teeth when it bites into the flesh of the mouse. The poisonous teeth of the adder and the poison it contains is very hazardous if it comes in contact with humans.

The young ones of adders do not hatch through eggs. They are born alive and measure about 6 inches in length. The adults are much bigger of course than their young ones. The biggest adder was caught in England and it was almost 28 and a half inches.