by Samantah Wallace

Created on: April 25, 2009

When visiting any zoo, you can ask any employee "What is the most viewed attraction in this zoo"? 99.9% of the time you will be told it is the reptile house. One of the main reasons for this is that humans get a high out of being frightened especially when they are in total safety. To see any of the snakes that are safely encased behind shatter proof glass crawling in our front yard would send almost anyone running for a shovel, a gun or at least a cell phone to call 911. We love to be frightened as long as we are safe. Most of the snakes in the smaller zoos have a few rattlesnakes, a copperhead or two and a couple of pythons and Boas,. The really big Zoos have a variety of snakes we at times see on animal programs such as the Rhino Viper and its bigger cousin the Gaboon Viper. You will never forget these two once you get a good look at them. The two horn shaped mounds above the nostrils are actually scales that for unknown reasons form a horn shape. The head is extremely wide due to the large venom glands. The Gaboon viper boasts of having the longest fangs of any snake on planet Earth, up to two (2) inches long. That could easily pierce through a hand or wrist. They belong to a family of snakes named "Bitis" and are old world vipers. The vipers in North and South America are pit vipers. The pits detect radiant heat produced by mammals. Old world vipers hunt by smell and sight alone.

A gaboon viper can grow to six foot though four is the normal size and weigh about twenty pounds. This makes it look as though it could not get out of its own way, a few people have made that mistake and paid dearly for it. A Gaboon viper can strike in any direction faster then a normal human can blink. It swims gracefully across ponds and when lying on the forest floor it becomes invisible. One point for most Gaboon vipers is that they are hard to rile, it takes a lot to get one mad but once that point is reached the instigator has little chance of leaving with out a bite or two. Its venom is protein based and destroys tissue and muscle walls. It is not that its venom is so very potent because it is not. It is the quantity that can be injected in a single bite. Up to 800 milligrams of venom can be delivered and with that amount inside you it would almost be a waste of time to try and save you, it is simply just to much venom to deal with. A few years ago in some city in Kentucky someones Gaboon viper escaped and went for a crawl. IT ended up in a garage where two young boys found

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>