Reptilia · Squamata
Bitis nasicornisShaw & Nodder, 1792
Rhinoceros Viper
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 140 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Bitis
- Grows to
- 1400mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 12years
Longer than 85% 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.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Vulnerable
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2019
- Population trend
- Decreasing
- Red List criteria
- A2cd
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 12years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1388mm4 ft 7 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1400mm4 ft 7 in
- Female length · mean, nose to tail
- 793mm2 ft 7 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 215mm8.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 1506.8g3.3 lb
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 717g1.6 lb
1200 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Kane et al. 2022 (gravid females 630–1181, mean 793 mm total length, but perhaps they mean SVL as I also have 793 as mean SVL), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 1330 mm in males, 1388 mm in females, neonates 180-250 mm TL), Pauwels and Colyn 2023 (2 females, SVL 344-544, mean 444 mm; total length 372-590, mean 481 mm; 2 males, SVL 343-866, mean P3 mm; total length 394-1016, mean 705 mm), Trape 2023 (max 130 cm), Spawls et al. 2023 (80-140 cm, hatchlings 18-25 cm)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 1120–2200m
- Range size
- 3,330,523km²
rodents, juveniles also eat anurans (Pietersen et al. 2021)
Sit (Glaudas et al. 2019)
Pietersen et al. 2021, Spawls et al. 2023
Terrestrial (Murphy et al. 2003), predominantly terrestrial (Pietersen et al. 2021), terrestrial but will climb (Malonza and Bwong 2023), terrestrial but regularly climbs (Spawls et al. 2023)
1500-2200 (Malonza and Bwong 2023), 1120-2100 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 22eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–42eggs
- Mean clutch
- 25eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
42 (Mallow et al. 2003), 6-38 (O'Shea 2011, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Spawls et al. 2023), 38, 31, 13-42 mean=25 (Chippaux and Jackson 2019, Kane et al. 2022), 13-42 mean=25 s.d.=11.96 (Luiselli et al. 1998), 6-42 (Pietersen et al. 2021)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Shaw & Nodder
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1792
- Type locality
- Inner Africa
Keeping one
Rhinoceros Viper is assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.
4 ft 7 in × 2 ft 4 in × 6 ft 11 in(140 × 70 × 210 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 1.5.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
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 4 ft 7 in (1400 mm), at 1 × 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 Rhinoceros 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.
131kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 1,507 g, the heaviest recorded for Rhinoceros 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 female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — 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 · 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — 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). Bitis nasicornis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bitis-nasicornis
@misc{bitis_nasicornis_2026,
title = {Bitis nasicornis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bitis-nasicornis}
}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.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.