Where do steppe vipers live. The steppe viper is a dangerous poisonous predator. Enemies of the steppe viper
It is smaller in size than an ordinary viper, the length of its body with a head does not exceed 57 cm, usually no more than 45-48 cm. Females are somewhat larger than males. In the steppe viper, the lateral edges of the muzzle are pointed and somewhat raised above its upper part, and the nostrils cut through the lower parts of the nasal shields. Above, it is brownish-gray in color with a dark zigzag stripe along the ridge, sometimes broken into separate parts or spots. Sides of the body with dark blurry spots. Rarely there are black steppe vipers.
This species is distributed in Western Europe (France, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria), in the steppe and southern part of the forest-steppe zone of Ukraine and Russia up to East Kazakhstan and Northwest China. It lives in the Crimea, in the steppe regions of the Caucasus, Central Asia, Turkey, Iran. It rises to mountains up to 2500-2700 m above sea level, inhabits various types of steppes, sea coasts, shrubs, rocky mountain slopes, meadow floodplains, riverine forests, ravines, grass-salt semi-deserts and loosely fixed sands. The steppe viper avoids plowed agricultural land. The population density of the steppe viper depends on weather conditions and is uneven over the years, snake foci are not pronounced. In some places in large areas, the number of these vipers is high. In Ciscaucasia, there are areas where from 20 to 56 steppe vipers are found per 1 ha. On the coastal cliffs of the Taganrog Bay of the Sea of Azov, there are up to 160 steppe vipers per 1 km of the coast. After winter, steppe vipers appear on the surface at different times. Most often, they crawl out for the first time in March or early April, and in the south of the range - at the end of February at a temperature not lower than 5 °C. On warm days they come to the surface in winter. Snakes spend the entire cold season in semi-stupor. Leaving the holes of rodents, cracks in the soil, voids between stones and other shelters where vipers hibernate singly or in small groups, they spend most of the day in open, unshaded places, basking in the sun.
In early or mid-April, steppe vipers mate. Males are active at this time. After the mating period, the snakes feed intensively, and, having satiated themselves, lie in well-warmed places for a long time. In spring, steppe vipers feed on lizards and lizards, which make up 30 to 98% of their diet. In some places, with a high number of mouse-like rodents, they catch voles, mole voles, steppe lemmings, hamsters, mice, and also look for insects. Rodents and insects (mainly grasshoppers) become the main prey of steppe vipers by the end of spring. Vipers also catch chicks of larks, wheatears, buntings and other small birds. Often, they climb trees for chicks, climb into birdhouses and destroy starlings, sparrows, and tits; sometimes they eat bird eggs. The prey of the steppe viper is occasionally spadefoot and frogs. Young steppe vipers feed on insects and arachnids, rarely small lizards. Digestion takes place within 2-4 days.
Steppe vipers begin to breed at the age of three, with a body length of 31 to 35 cm. The gestation period is from 90 to 130 days, more often about 105-110 days. From early August to mid-September, females give birth to 3 to 16 cubs, usually 5-6. The length of newborns is from 12 to 18 cm. Probably, in the steppe viper, a placental connection of the embryos with the walls of the mother's oviducts is formed. Shortly after birth, vipers molt. Adults molt three times a year: in April-May, July-August, late August - early September. Snakes molt at a temperature not lower than 15 ° C and relative humidity not lower than 35%. In healthy snakes, shedding of old covers takes about 15 minutes. Exhausted and sick snakes molt for a long time, and this process is often fatal for them. The life expectancy of steppe vipers in nature is apparently less than that of ordinary vipers, since snakes older than 7-8 years are rarely found.
The steppe viper has many enemies: an owl, a black kite, a steppe eagle, a harrier, a raven, a stork, a badger, a fox, a steppe ferret, a hedgehog. The specific enemy of the steppe viper is a lizard snake, which prefers vipers to any other prey and easily copes with them, swallowing them whole, after paralyzing them with a bite. One lizard snake is capable of swallowing two or three vipers in an hour. For humans, the bite of a steppe viper is less dangerous than the bite of an ordinary viper. The steppe viper tends to crawl away when it encounters a human and attacks only when the escape route is cut off. Cases of deaths from the bite of the steppe viper are not reliably known. Occasionally, horses and small cattle die from the bites of this viper.
Panorama "Steppes and semi-deserts"
This venomous reptile is a fairly large snake. Unlike many other animals, in vipers, the female, as a rule, is larger than the male.
The upper body of the snake has a gray-brown color. The color brightens towards the middle of the back. A dark stripe zigzags along the viper's spine. The lateral pattern is a series of very dark spots with indistinct edges.
The body length of the steppe viper can reach 60 cm, and the tail length - up to 10 cm. The edges of the muzzle of this reptile are slightly raised, and the skull is elongated.
The top of the head is painted in a dark, almost black pattern. The belly is gray with white spots. Melanism in these snakes is quite rare.
Habitat of vipers
The steppe viper is distributed throughout almost the entire territory of Central and Southern Europe. The habitat includes Hungary, Albania, Italy, Greece, Romania, France, the territory of the former Yugoslavia, Germany. Also, this snake lives in the south and east of Ukraine and in Kazakhstan. On the territory of Russia, this snake is found in southern Siberia, the steppe regions of the Caucasus. Also, the steppe viper is found on the territory of the forest-steppe and steppe zones of Russia.
Lifestyle and nutrition of the steppe viper
This snake prefers dry places, such as slopes overgrown with bushes, mountain and flat steppes. It also occurs in alpine meadows and ravines. In the mountains, this viper is found at an altitude of up to 2600 meters. In all the listed places of the range, the steppe viper is not a common inhabitant.
There are places where the concentration density is up to 20 - 40 individuals per hectare. In the Saratov region, the density is from 4 to 9 individuals per 1 ha, and in the north of the Lower Volga region, only 2 - 5 individuals. The density of individuals is especially high in the steppes.
The steppe viper is active from the third decade of March until October. Hibernation ends when the ambient temperature rises above 6 °C on average. In the spring, while it is not very hot, this snake can be found even during the day. With the onset of summer, it appears on the surface only in the evening and morning hours. The steppe viper is an excellent swimmer. Moves slowly on hard surfaces. Good for climbing trees. This snake spends the winter alone, hiding in empty rodent burrows, cracks in the ground, between stones. It spends almost all the cold season in hibernation, but on warm winter days it can crawl out to the surface and bask on stones.
Vipers are predators. They feed on small birds, spiders, lizards. The snake feeds on eggs and chicks, destroying bird nests. Also, its usual diet includes rodents and lizards. The viper does not disdain insects such as spiders, crickets, locusts and grasshoppers. In early spring, small lizards predominate in the diet, but towards the end, the balance shifts in favor of rodents and insects (mainly grasshoppers and locusts). Food in the stomach of a viper is digested within 48 to 96 hours.
Reproduction of steppe vipers
The mating season starts in April and lasts until the end of May. The gestation period lasts from 13 to 17 weeks. After this period, from 4 to 10 cubs are born. The length of the newborn young is from 13 to 16 cm, body weight is 3.2 - 4.5 g. Sexual maturity comes at the age of more than two years. By this time, the snake grows up to 30 cm.
species protection
Previously, the venom of the steppe viper was used everywhere, but the decline in the number of the species forced its use to be abandoned. At the present time, in all European countries, the steppe viper is taken under protection under the Berne Convention. The plowing of agricultural land sharply reduces the population of the species, endangering it, up to extinction.
It is common in all European countries where there are forest-steppes, in Ukraine it can be found in the Black Sea and Crimea, and in Russia - in the European part of the steppes and forest-steppes, in the foothills of the North Caucasus. This snake also lives in Asia: in Kazakhstan, Southern Siberia, Altai. However, due to the active plowing of land, the number of this species of reptiles has noticeably decreased, and in European countries the animal is under protection. In Ukraine and Russia, the reptile is listed in the national Red Books.
The steppe viper is a rather characteristic animal, and it is difficult to confuse it with a snake or a non-venomous snake. The size of the reptile is from 55 to 63 centimeters, with females being larger than males. This species is distinguished from other snakes by some elevation of the edges of the muzzle, which gives it the appearance of "grinning". On the sides, the scales are painted in gray-brown tones, and the back is lighter with a distinct zigzag stripe running along the ridge. There is also a dark pattern on the forehead. The abdomen is light, with gray spots.
From hibernation, these reptiles wake up, depending on climatic conditions, when the temperature is set to at least seven degrees Celsius. And in April or May they have mating season. In spring and autumn, the snake comes out of its hiding place only during the warmest time of the day, and in summer it can be seen in the morning and evening hours. What do snakes of this species eat? Small rodents, chicks, but the main diet is insects, mainly fat locusts. Therefore, the animal is considered useful for agriculture. The reptile and lizards do not disdain. In turn, the reptile serves as food for others. It is also devoured by a larger lizard snake.
The steppe viper is viviparous. In August, the female brings in one litter from three to ten kites. Newborns weigh about 4 grams with a body length of 11-13 centimeters. Small vipers reach puberty only in the third year of life, when they grow up to 27-30 centimeters. Juveniles quite often, adults less often, change skin. To do this, the snakes climb into the crevice and begin to rub against the stones until cracks appear at the lips. After that, the individual crawls out of the skin, like from an old stocking.
Russia, including snakes, for the most part are not dangerous. But vipers in this sense are an exception. However, rumors about the dangers of their poison are somewhat exaggerated. An encounter with this snake can be fatal for a small animal such as a dog, but not for humans. Its bite is rather painful. In its place, edema rapidly develops, which spreads far beyond the affected foot. Hemorrhagic blisters and even necrotic areas may form. The bitten person has dizziness, increased heart rate, drowsiness, nausea, and a decrease in overall body temperature.
If you or your companion is bitten by a steppe viper, it is necessary to provide first aid to the victim as soon as possible. To do this, wrap the area of the body above the bite with a cloth twisted into a tourniquet. Basically, snakes sting in the foot (sometimes in the hand, when a person accidentally, in search of mushrooms or berries, stumbles upon an animal). The tourniquet must be applied firmly to prevent the outflow of infected blood. Then squeeze out the poisoned blood through the wounds left by the viper's teeth. After this, the patient should still be taken to the doctor - to avoid complications and allergic reactions. Serum "Anti-gyurza" has proven itself well.
Type Chordates - Chordata
Class reptiles
detachment Scaly - Squamata
Family Viper family - Viperidae.
View Steppe viper - Pelias renardi (Christoph, 1861)
Status. 3 "Rare" - 3, RD.
Global population endangered category on the IUCN Red List
Not included in the IUCN Red List.
Category according to IUCN Red List criteria
The regional population is categorized as Near Threatened, NT. B. S. Tuniev.
Belonging to the objects of action of international agreements and conventions ratified by the Russian Federation
Do not belong.
Brief morphological description
The length of the body with the tail reaches 635 mm for ♂ and 735 mm for ♀. Two variants of coloration are noted: cryptic and melanistic. Cryptic (typical) coloration is represented by various variants of gray and brown with a dark brown or black zigzag stripe on the back. Melanistic individuals in the region represent about a fifth of the population, although in some groups the number of melanists can reach 44%.
Spreading
The global range covers the steppe and semi-desert zones of Southeastern Europe, Kazakhstan and Central Asia. In the Russian Federation, it is found from the Volga-Kama Territory in the north to Ciscaucasia in the south and Altai in the east. The regional range covers the plains and foothills north of the line Anapa - Abrau-Dyurso - Novorossiysk - Abinsk - Goryachiy Klyuch - Khadyzhensk - Psebay. Type area: Sarepta, Lower Volga (Russia).
Features of biology and ecology
The steppe viper is found on the plains of various types (loess, alluvial-loess, terraced), on the hills in the lower mountains. Inhabits forest edges, shrub associations, shiblyaks, steppe slopes. In the southeast of the range in the region it rises up to 1000 m above sea level. sea, able to live on sandy sea spits.
In the conditions of an anthropogenic landscape, it forms ribbon settlements along inconvenient and waste areas, forest plantations, etc. . From wintering grounds appear in March, activity continues until the first days of November, the average duration of activity of vipers in the region is 230 days. In spring and autumn, vipers are active during the day; in July–August, two-peak activity was noted.
Diet includes invertebrates and vertebrates. Mating takes place en masse in April. The birth of young takes place from the end of June to the first days of September. In broods, from 3 to 18 individuals were noted.
Numbers and trends
In the vicinity of the village of Raevskaya, there were 2–3 individuals of the steppe viper per 2 km of the route, on the ridge. Gerpegem - 2 individuals per 1 km, in the vicinity of the Saratovskaya station - up to 4 individuals per 1 ha, on the Yasenskaya Spit - 5 individuals per 1 km. The maximum density of populations in the region is 30 individuals per 1 ha, with an average density of 11 individuals. per 1 ha.
Limiting factors
Transformation of steppe and forest-steppe landscapes, direct destruction by man led to a reduction in the number and range of the species
.Necessary and additional security measures
Organization of micro-reserves in dense habitats of the species.
Sources of information. 1. Anan'eva et al., 2004; 2. Ostrovskikh, 1997; 3. Ostrovskikh, 2003; 4. Ostrovskikh and Plotnikov, 2003a; 5. Ostrovskikh and Plotnikov, 2003b; 6. Unpublished data of compilers. Compiled by B. S. Tuniev, S. B. Tuniev. Bird class - Aves
Cited literature: , classification - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki