Reptilia · Squamata
Atheris squamigeraHallowell, 1854
African Bush Viper
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 800 mm nose to tail.
Also called Rough-scaled Bush Viper, Variable Bush Viper.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Atheris
- Grows to
- 800mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 20years
Longer than only 43% of all vipers anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 280 to 3,900 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
36 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Two of these figures disagree
Length snout to vent (adult female mean) is given as 498, and Length snout to vent (greatest recorded) as 477.5 — but an average female cannot be longer than the longest recorded. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2019
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Green
- Pattern on the back
- Banded, blotched, uniform
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 20years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 800mm2 ft 7 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 190mm7.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 272.3g9.6 oz
- Length snout to vent · greatest recordeddisputed
- 477.5mm19 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female meandisputed
- 498mm19.5 in
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
780 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), 48.3 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History), Pauwels and Colyn 2023 (1 female, 498 mm SVL; 1 male, 422 mm SVL, 525 mm total length), Trape 2023 (25-80 cm), Spawls et al. 2023 (40-80, hatchlings 16-22 cm TL)
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 1000–1700m
- Range size
- 2,843,371km²
amphibians (Malonza and Bwong 2023), small mammals, frogs, lizards and sometimes small snakes (Trape 2023), small mammals and other vertebrates (Spawls et al. 2023)
Sit (Glaudas et al. 2019)
"appears to be nocturnal" (Spawls et al. 2018, Luiselli et al. 2000) (recorded by Anuj Shinde), mostly nocturnal (Malonza and Bwong 2023), nocturnal (Trape 2023, Spawls et al. 2023)
(Gearty et al. 2021, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Trape 2023), arboreal but will descend to the ground at night (Spawls et al. 2023)
around 1700 (Malonza and Bwong 2023), 1000 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 8eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 5–12eggs
- Mean clutch
- 7–9eggs
Feldman et al. 2015, Spawls et al. 2023
5-9 (Mallow et al. 2003), 8 (O'Shea 2011), 7-9 (Phelps 2010), means: 7-9 (Murphy et al. 2003, Spawls et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Hallowell
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1854
- Type locality
- Gabon
Keeping one
23.5 in × 15.5 in × 3 ft 11 in(60 × 40 × 120 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 0.75 × 0.5 × 1.5.
Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own total length of 2 ft 7 in (800 mm), at 0.75 × 0.5 × 1.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for African Bush Viper. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
29kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 272 g, the heaviest recorded for African Bush Viper — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Viperidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Atheris squamigera. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/atheris-squamigera
@misc{atheris_squamigera_2026,
title = {Atheris squamigera},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/atheris-squamigera}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.