Reptilia · Squamata
Bothrops jararacaWied-Neuwied, 1824
Jararaca
Photograph by Pedro Alvaro Neves, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Neotropic region, reaching 160 cm nose to tail.
Also called lancehead.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Bothrops
- Grows to
- 1600mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 20years
Longer than 90% 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
37 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 20years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1454mm4 ft 9 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1600mm5 ft 3 in
- Female length · mean, nose to tail
- 1070mm3 ft 6 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 213.5mm8.5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 400mm15.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 1704.5g3.8 lb
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 356g12.6 oz
1600 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016, Williams and Vera 2023), Barbo et al. 2022a (northern: female SVL 224-1454, mean 705, n = 96; males 240–1148 mean 646.8 N = 91, obviously with juveniles; southern females 233–1158 mean 667 N = 19, males 203–760 mean 532.4 mm), Fiorillo et al. 2022 (male: 84 cm SVL, 12 cm tail length, 171 g; female: 93 cm SVL, 14 cm tail length, 356 g), neonates 400 nn TL (Williams and Vera 2023)
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, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1200m
- Range size
- 1,714,879km²
Amphibians, Endotherms (Ramirez et al. 2023)
Sit (Glaudas et al. 2019)
(Stark et al. 2018), "These snakes are predominantly crepuscular and nocturnal (Sazima 1988, Marques & Sazima 2004), although they may also be active during the day to thermoregulate (Sazima & Haddad 1992)." (Oliveira et al. 2022), nocturnal and crepuscular (Williams and Vera 2023)
Terrestrial (Scharf et al. 2015), "Most individuals of B. jararaca recorded were on leaf litter (N = 21), followed by anthropic areas (N = 9), next to streams (N = 8), on trees (N = 8) and finally, under a rock (N = 1).", mostly terrestrial also arboreal (Williams and Vera 2023)
0-1000 (O'Shea 2018), 0-1200 (Oliveira et al. 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 12eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 10–22eggs
- Mean clutch
- 10.7eggs
- Clutches a year
- 0.5per year
Feldman et al. 2015
mean 10.7 (Schuett et al. 2002), 18-22 (O'Shea 2018), 10 (Williams and Vera 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Wied-Neuwied
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1824
- Type locality
- Brazil
Keeping one
5 ft 3 in × 2 ft 7 in × 7 ft 10 in(160 × 80 × 240 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 5 ft 3 in (1600 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 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.
146kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 1,705 g, the heaviest recorded for 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 · 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
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — 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
- — 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
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
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 jararaca. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bothrops-jararaca
@misc{bothrops_jararaca_2026,
title = {Bothrops jararaca},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bothrops-jararaca}
}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.