Horned Viper
Cerastes cerastes
Summary 6
Cerastes cerastes is a venomous viper species native to the deserts of Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East. It often is easily recognised by the presence of a pair of supraocular "horns", although hornless individuals do occur. No subspecies are currently recognised.
Description 7
A medium to fairly large snake, with a short, stocky body. Largest Egyptian specimen has a total length of 735 mm. Tail short, tail / total length = 0.08-0.13. Nostril round; 11-15 supralabials; eye moderate, separated from supralabials by 4-5 scales, pupil vertical; scales on dorsal side of head moderate, more than 14 interorbitals; a supraocular horn made of a single spine-like scale, present or absent; dorsals strongly keeled, 28-39 scale rows around mid-body; 137-156 ventrals, 23-45 paired subcaudals; anal entire. Dorsum sandy, with a usual pattern of large, brownish, rounded or square spots along mid-dorsum, alternating with smaller lateral dark spots; a dark band between the posterior of the eye to the angle of the mouth. Venter plain white.
Geographic range 8
Sahara horned vipers are among the most abundant and easily distinguishable of the venomous snakes of the North African and Middle Eastern deserts. Cerastes cerastes is generally distributed all across North Africa, including southwestern Arabia and southwestern Israel. Common in the Sahara desert, it is most frequently found between Egypt and Morocco. Its range extends to southward to northern Mali, Niger, northern Chad, Sudan, and Mauritania.
Although records are rare in the southern Saharan borderlands, this snake has been reported within the Sahel, the sub-steppe region of the Sahara. Interestingly, C. cerastes is also known to inhabit the deserts of the eastern Sinai, coexisting with the Arabian horned viper, Cerastes gasperetti mendelssohni.
Biogeographic Regions: palearctic (Native ); ethiopian (Native )
Sources and Credits
- (c) David Hill, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/afpmb/4705713831/
- (c) Tomáš Borovička, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/42236.jpg
- (c) 2009 Arie van der Meijden, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=277824&one=T
- (c) 2001 California Academy of Sciences, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=31818&one=T
- Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Vipere_cornes_24.JPG
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerastes_cerastes
- (c) Bibliotheca Alexandrina, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/15643932
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/18639314
