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Reptiles are some of the most extraordinary animals in the world, I am fascinated by the evolution that most have had, especially snakes. These have been religious symbols to represent evil. Although in other cultures the snake can be a magical animal, the fact is that snakes do not have legs and have had to manage for millions of years to survive in a hostile world.
So today I want to pay special tribute to a snake that really is beautiful and is known by the name of the spiny bush viper. I would like to show you how magnificent an animal it is. Come with me on this journey of discovery.
Its scientific name is Atheris, and it has a wide variety of specimens of striking colours. It is characterized by having scales that resemble thorns and dried leaves hence the meaning of its name. This beautiful snake is in the top 10 most poisonous reptiles. There is even no anti venom for the bite of a spiny bush viper.
They are excellent masters of camouflage, and with their scales that look like leaves, they go unnoticed in environments of dry or green leaves. Everything depends on colour. They are endemic to the west coast of Africa. Something very characteristic in poisonous snakes is the size of the head that is usually very large due to the position of the salivary glands that produce and store the poison to be used in self-defence or for hunting their prey. Their huge eyes are another striking feature of this exotic snake.
To give you an idea of why snakes pull out their tongues as if they were making fun of someone, I will explain it to you briefly. In snakes, the tongue is a heat receptor and it is only through this that they manage to explore space since, despite their large eyes, the vast majority are in fact almost completely blind. The snake´s tongue traps air molecules to send them to an organ called Jacobson that in humans would be the palate where there are many receptor cells that provide data about their environment and enable them to determine in seconds whether or not it is their prey.
Its scaly skin allows it to stick like no other snake, it also has larger tusks than other species because its diet is based on medium sized lizards, as well as amphibians and rodents. The males of this species reach a total length of 73 cm: the body measures about 58 cm, and the tail about 15 cm. Females grow to a maximum length of 58 cm. Males are much longer and thinner compared to females.
There are a large number of different types of Atheris, with very striking colours. The females exceed males in size and are more brightly coloured too as they may be green, brown, black, and yellow. Females give birth to a maximum of 12 offspring at a time, each of which is approximately 15 cm in total length.
Although it is considered one of the most dangerous snake species in the world, very few cases of it attacking and killing humans have been recorded because it is an arboreal snake and it is very rarely found on the ground level.
However, there have been many cases of this snake being hunted and nowadays it is in danger of extinction due to the felling of its habitat. As always humans are destroying the planet, with not all, but some, having no mercy on any living being and it seems that greed for money can trump the importance of the preservation of other species that inhabit our planet.
Thank you for reading
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