Vipera dinniki
Western Caucasus viper (Vipera dinniki )
The Western Caucasus Otter or West Caucasian viper (Vipera dinniki ) is a type of the Real vipers (Vipera ) within the vipers ( Viperidae ). Its distribution is restricted to the western and northern Caucasus and closes so that north on the range of the Caucasus viper ( V. kaznakovi ) to. The scientific name honors the Russian zoologist Nikolai Jakovlevich Dinnik.
Features
The Western Caucasus Otter reached an average length of about 40 to 55 cm, the females are larger than males. They resemble the Caucasus viper ( V. kaznakovi ) and the steppe viper ( V. renardi ) in their coloring and shape. The basic color is gray, gray-brown, silver gray or gray-green with a back drawing from a broad dark and sharply defined zigzag or wave band. The body sides are brightly colored and have dark spots that are alternately back to drawing. The belly is dark gray with bright spots. From the temple a temple strap passes over the eyes to the corners of the mouth. Occasionally, totally black colored, so-called melanistic individuals before. Juveniles have the same coloring as the adult animals in melanistic animals the darkening begins only during ontogeny.
The head is clearly separated from the rest of the body. The eyes have vertical pupils. On top of the head, the frontal, the parietals and the supraorbital shields are made large. The remaining shields are dissolved into small scales. About The eye shield is rostral to a sharp edge, the nostril is in the midst of Nasal. Below the eye is a series of Under Eye shields ( Subocularia ), including 9 to 11 are upper lip shields ( supralabials ). The body scales are keeled. Around the middle of the body are usually 21, rarely 22-23, scale rows. The under tail- shields ( Subcaudalia ) are divided as in all species of the genus.
Distribution and habitat
The Western Caucasus Otter is found only in the alpine regions of the western and northern Caucasus from fish t Oschten massif to the Shkhara Mountains. As habitat prefer the animals to mountain forests, mountain meadows, scree and moraines at altitudes between 1500 and 3000 meters.
Way of life
The Western Caucasus Otter is diurnal, where the animals are to be found according to the position of the sun in the morning and late in the afternoon on ostexponierten west exposed surfaces. The Hibernation takes seven to eight months. It feeds mainly on small mammals such as mice and rats and lizards and young birds, which it kills by a poisonous bite. Young snakes feed on grasshoppers and young lizards.
The mating season of the Otter is begins in late April and extends into May. The snake is viviparous ( ovivivipar ) and takes 3 to 5 pups that are born from August to September and molt in the first few hours.
Snake venom
The venom of the Western Caucasus viper Vipera is like that of all types of hemotoxic, medical treatment with an adequate antivenin is necessary.