Reptilia · Squamata
Bothrops bilineatusWied-Neuwied, 1821
Green Jararaca
Photograph by B. Phalan, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Neotropic region, reaching 965 mm nose to tail.
Also called Two-striped forest-pitviper \.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Bothrops
- Grows to
- 965mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Arboreal
Longer than 60% 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
29 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
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2014
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 965mm3 ft 2 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 469.9g1 lb
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest, Wetlands
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 8months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 150–530m
- Range size
- 6,855,445km²
anurans (da Fonseca et al. 2021), small vertebrates (Cavalcante et al. 2022)
Sit (Murphy et al. 2003)
"Bothrops b. smaragdinus were mostly observed performing hunting activities at night (n = 63, 82.9%; Fig. 2A–C, E, G, H), followed by locomotion activity (n = 13, 17.1%; Fig. 2D). Individuals performing ambush hunting exhibited a caudal luring strategy on 44 occasions (Fig. 2C). During daytime encounters (n = 17), individuals were most often observed resting (n = 14; Fig. 2F), and only three individuals hunted in the early morning" (da Fonseca et al. 2021), diurnal (da Frota et al. 2021, n = 1), "In general, B. bilineatus is a nocturnal species... Although it has been seen hunting in the early hours of the day (da Fonseca et al., 2021), this species usually rests in the daytime, apparently in the same spot where it hunts at night" (Cavalcante et al. 2022)
("In general, B. b. smaragdinus was observed between 0.3 m and 18.0 m in height (mean = 6.4 m; n = 63 observations) when hunting on trees with diameters varying between 1.9 cm to 45.1 cm (mean = 12.2 cm; n = 49)", da Fonseca et al. 2021)), arboreal (da Frota et al. 2021, n = 1)
150-530 (Señaris & Rojas-Runjaic 2020)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–5eggs
Feldman 2015
4-5 (O'Shea 2011)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Bothrops bilineatus bilineatus (WIED 1821) Bothrops bilineatus smaragdinus HOGE 1966
- Described by
- Wied-Neuwied
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1821
- Type locality
- Brazil
Keeping one
2 ft 5 in × 19 in × 4 ft 9 in(72 × 48 × 145 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 3 ft 2 in (965 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 Green Jararaca. 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.
47kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 470 g, the heaviest recorded for Green Jararaca — 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 · greatest recorded
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — 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
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — 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
- — Longest recorded life
- — 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
- — Average clutch
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — 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). Bothrops bilineatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bothrops-bilineatus
@misc{bothrops_bilineatus_2026,
title = {Bothrops bilineatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bothrops-bilineatus}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.