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Common European Adder — printable fact sheet
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Common European Adder
Vipera berus
Vipera berus is the only venomous snake native to Britain and the most northerly snake on Earth, ranging north of the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and clear across Eurasia to Sakhalin. Living in a cold climate forces two adaptations that define the species: it gives birth to liv…
Did you know?
- Despite being venomous, the Common European Adder is responsible for very few serious bites, and fatalities are extremely rare.
- The dark zigzag along the back is the single most reliable field mark in Britain, but wholly black melanistic adders occur, and they warm up faster in cool weather at the cost of being more visible to predators. Adders are among the very few snakes that will bask in air temperatures close to freezing, using their black-and-grey pattern as a solar collector. Most bites in the UK happen to people handling or attempting to kill the snake, and to dogs that nose it. Newborn adders arrive fully venomous, in a thin membrane they break within seconds of birth.
What I learned
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