Macrovipera deserti
The Sahara Otter ( Daboia deserti; Syn Macrovipera deserti ) is a North African Viper from the kind of Oriental vipers.
- 6.1 Literature
Description
The Sahara Otter is up to a maximum of 160 cm long, making it one of the larger vipers. She has a broad and triangular, clearly separated from the body with a rounded head and short snout and relatively small eyes with vertically slit pupils.
Squamation
The shields top of the head are divided into small, keeled scales. The upper eye signs are disaggregated into smaller scales. The eyes are surrounded by a ring of 12 to 18 Circumorbtalia. From 11 to 12 shields the upper lip ( supralabials ) eyes are separated by two or three series of sub- eye signs. The large nostrils are located in a single, large nose shield from Nasal and Nasorostrale.
The body and head scales are strongly keeled except for the last row of contact with the ventral scales. On the back are usually 27 rows of scales around midbody. Belly side are 164-170 ventral scales ( Ventralia ) and after an undivided anal shield 44 to 51 paired under tail- shields ( Subcaudalia ) available. The tail is comparatively long.
Coloring
The basic color of the snake is gray to yellowish mixed with 23 to 26 scale, black spots, forming a back pattern. The patterning dissolves with age so that older animals only have a very vague drawing. Even individuals without drawing are known.
Distribution and habitat
The range of the snake is limited to the higher-lying desert areas in Libya and Tunisia and the foot of the Atlas Mountains in Algeria. The semi-arid habitat is characterized by dryness and a very sparse vegetation and by a rocky or sandy ground.
Way of life
The Sahara Otter is nocturnal and spends the hotter times of the day under stones, in hollows and under the vegetation. The food spectrum consists in adult snakes mainly from small mammals and birds, while the young animals prey on lizards. The qualified climbing snakes also prey on young birds and eggs from nests.
The Sahara Otter is unlike most vipers oviparous and the females lay up to 20 eggs.
System
→ Main article: Oriental vipers # systematics
The Sahara Otter was first described by Anderson in 1892 as a subspecies of the Levant viper ( Macrovipera lebetina ) and later regarded as a subspecies of the Atlas Otter ( Daboia mauritanica ). She was a long time classified in the genus of the Real vipers (Vipera ). In 1992, a revision of the genus Vipera, in which the Atlas Otter was provided on the basis of biochemical characteristics together with three other species in the genus of large vipers ( Macrovipera ), at the same time presented the chain Viper is the only species of the genus Daboia dar.
By steering et al. 2001 this view has been questioned. Based on molecular biology, the assignment of African Macrovipera and the Palestine viper genus Daboia was proposed. This view is confirmed by Garrigues et al. 2004: As with steering et al. 2001 is the genus of the United vipers in the current compilation paraphyletic, the Chain Viper ( Daboia russeli ) is a taxon with the Palestine viper and the former big African viper species. Mallow et al. 2003 arranged according to a Palestine viper in the genus Daboia, the Atlas and the Sahara Otter Otter in 2008 by Wüster et al. and in the IUCN Red List based on the results of Lenk et al. asked to Daboia.
Endangering
The Sahara Otter is in the IUCN Red List due to its small distribution area as well as the declining stocks as a kind of early warning ( " near threatened " ) listed.