Order: Squamata

Family: Viperidae

 

Size:  up to 61 cm in length.

 

Key Features: distinguished by a prominent, dark brown, arrow-shaped marking on the head and is covered in small, heavily keeledscales. Three or four enlarged scales form a slight ridge above each eye. The body is tan, greyish or brown in colour, with a row of 30 whitish blotches with dark brown edges running along the back, while the underside is whitish with dark grey spots.

 

Voice: produce a loud, rasping warning ‘hiss’.

 

Breeding: The population in India is ovoviparous. In northern India, mating takes place in the winter with live young being born from April through August. Occasionally, births have also been recorded in other months. A litter usually consists of 3 to 15 young that are 115–152 mm in length.

 

Diet: feeds on toads, lizards, arthropods, bird eggs and nestlings.

 

Habitat: inhabits arid regions in sandy, rocky or gravel habitats, in areas of sparse and scrubby vegetation.

 

Habits:  easily provoked and will strike rapidly when it senses danger. When threatened, it first assumes a characteristic defensive position, curling its body into a series of C-shaped coils which are rubbed against each other in opposite directions to produce a loud, rasping warning ‘hiss’.

 

Conservation Status: Not assessed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Mallow D, Ludwig D, Nilson G. (2003). True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company. 359 pp. ISBN 0-89464-877-2.

 

Daniels JC. (2002). The Book of Indian Reptiles and Amphibians. Mumbai: Bombay Natural History Society & Oxford University Press. 252 pp. [151-153].ISBN 0-19-566099-4.

 

Hellyer, P. and Aspinall, S. (2005) The Emirates: A Natural History. Trident Press Limited, United Arab Emirates.

 

Echis carinatus. In Wildlife of Pakistan. Retrieved on July 11, 2014 from http://wildlifeofpakistan.com/ReptilesofPakistan/sawscaledviper.htm

 

Halliday, T. and Adler, K. (2002) The New Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

 

Rehan, H. (1993) Population structure and behavioural ecology of Echis carinatus sochureki in Sindh (Makli, Thatta). Ph.D. Thesis, University of Karachi, Pakistan.

 

Photo Courtesy

Shantanu Kuveskar, Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons