A small, irritable Asian viper that produces a rasping warning sound by rubbing its serrated scales together and kills more people each year than any other snake.
Description
The saw-scaled viper is a small, tan or sandy snake rarely over 60 cm, with a series of darker brown wavy crossbars on a pale background and a distinctive pale arrow on the top of the head. Its dorsal scales are strongly keeled and serrated, the key to its warning sound.
Behavior
When threatened, the snake coils into a figure-eight and rubs the rough flanks together to produce a rasping hiss. The hemotoxic venom causes severe bleeding and is fatal in a large fraction of untreated bites; the species is among the Big Four medically important snakes of India.
Range
Distributed widely across the dry country of South Asia, the Middle East, and parts of North Africa, with several closely related species replacing it across Africa. The genus Echis is responsible for more snakebite deaths than any other.
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Saw-scaled Viper starts with S and ends with R. Browse other snakes along the same letter.
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