Despite the fact that today meeting in the forest or in the field with a poisonous snake is a rarity, sometimes it does happen. Much more often, hunters, fishermen and mushroom pickers intersect with a snake, which many mistakenly take for a viper. And the thing is that there is a significant similarity between them. In order not to endanger yourself when meeting, you need to know how to distinguish a snake from a viper. To do this, we will compare these two reptiles.
Appearance of the snake
An adult can reach a length of one and a half, or even two meters, although the average size ranges from 75 cm to 1 m. The color is mostly gray or black, sometimes it is olive with checkerboard spots. On the body of the snake, a change of colors can be traced: the farther from the head, the darker the color. In order to know how to distinguish a snake from a viper, you need to remember that a special feature of all snakes is the presence of bright spots on the head, they can beyellow, orange or white. They are located in the area of the ears, so they are also called "yellow ears". The head is oval, the pupils of the eyes are round. The tail is elongated and thin. They lack poisonous teeth.
Distinctive features of the viper
This snake has smaller dimensions, on average, the body length is about 50 cm. Colors can be very diverse, including black. Trying to determine how to distinguish a snake from a viper, you need to know that it will not be possible to do this only by color. There is another feature characteristic of vipers - this is a dark zigzag on the back, passing through the entire body. Their tail is shorter, and the body is thicker than that of the snake. The head has a triangular shape, the pupils are placed vertically.
Habitat
Snakes prefer to settle in damp places. They are good swimmers, they can often be found near ponds and swamps. But the main reason for this choice of habitat is the presence of frogs, a favorite delicacy of snakes. Shelter for them are stones, tree roots, small holes. The viper feeds mainly on voles and other rodents. Therefore, its habitat is either high steppe grass, or dense shrubbery in the forest, where it is possible to hide from uninvited guests. Different habitat also allows you to answer the question of how to distinguish snake from viper. They say that where snakes live, there can be no vipers. But, apparently, this is not a completely correct opinion, naturalists often had to see how peacefully it was in the sun nearby.both representatives of the snake family were warming themselves.
Different characters
Another thing that differs from a viper is its aggressiveness. Their characters are completely different. It will never attack a person first. Defensively, he will imitate an attack and imitate the behavior of a viper. Seeing the futility of his attempts to free himself, he can pretend to be dead. At great danger, it exudes an unpleasant odor that scares away many animals. The viper behaves much more aggressively. It is worth provoking her, and she instantly attacks, and completely ignoring the dimensions of her enemy.
Summarize and remember
The difference between a viper and a snake is as follows:
- a viper is smaller than a snake in size;
- already has “yellow ears”, the viper has a zigzag strip along its back;
- a viper has a triangular head, a snake has an oval head;
- snakes have round pupils, vipers have vertical pupils;
- snakes prefer to live near water bodies, vipers in the forests;
- vipers are aggressive, they are in a hurry to hide.
