Reptilia · Squamata
Bothrops jararacussuLacerda, 1884
Jararacussu
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, active by day or night, meat-eating snake from the Neotropic region, reaching 220 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Bothrops
- Grows to
- 2200mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than 97% 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
38 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
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1800mm5 ft 11 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 1151mm3 ft 9 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 2200mm7 ft 3 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 221mm8.75 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 256.5mm10 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 3004.3g6.6 lb
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 718g1.6 lb
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 9.8g0.35 oz
2200 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016, Muscat et al. 2021), neonates (Muscat et al. 2021: mass 6.4-13.1 g, SVL 192-250 mm, total length 224-289), Cabral et al. 2022 (max Total length 2000 mm, Max SVL: 1800 mm), over 2 meters TL (Williams and Vera 2023), Silva et al. 2020 (Adult females averaged 1150.6 ± 144.7 mm SVL (range = 800-1575 mm; n = 159), and adult males averaged 717.9 ± 112.5 mm SVL (range = 460-970 mm; n = 171)
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
- Cathemeral
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 700m
- Range size
- 2,018,019km²
- Home range · largest recorded
- 4600m2
"Bothrops jararacussu displays an ontogenetic diet shift, as juveniles prey mostly on frogs, often with the use of caudal luring to attract prey, whereas adults prey on small mammals, frogs, lizards, and, occasionally, other snakes" (Muscat et al. 2021), juveniles eat mostly frogs and lizards, adults mostly mammals (Williams and Vera 2023)
Sit (Glaudas et al. 2019)
(Feldman 2015, Williams and Vera 2023), "Bothrops jararacussu found during the day were mostly motionless, coiled close to fallen trunks or hidden in burrows or amid rock formations. In a few instances, we found individuals active during the day, moving on the substrate a few meters from where they were located the previous day." (Muscat et al. 2021)
(Feldman 2015, Williams and Vera 2023), "Adults relied mostly on the ground for movement and rest. We recorded two juveniles coiled on vegetation about 1 m above ground. Encounters with females were more frequent than with males in all types of habitats and microhabitats (Table 1). " (Muscat et al. 2021)
0-700 (Feldman 2015)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 21eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 12–73eggs
- Mean clutch
- 27.7eggs
- Clutches a year
- 0.5per year
Feldman et al. 2015, Meiri et al. 2019, Muscat et al. 2021
12-73 mean=27.7 s.d.=13.2 n=31 (Silva et al. 2020), 18-22 (O'Shea 2011), 13-37 (Marques et al. 2013a, Williams and Vera 2023), 13-73 (Muscat et al. 2021)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Lacerda
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1884
- Type locality
- Argentina
Keeping one
7 ft 3 in × 3 ft 7 in × 5 ft 5 in(220 × 110 × 165 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 × 0.75.
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 7 ft 3 in (2200 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Jararacussu. 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.
242kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 3,004 g, the heaviest recorded for Jararacussu — 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
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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 jararacussu. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bothrops-jararacussu
@misc{bothrops_jararacussu_2026,
title = {Bothrops jararacussu},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/bothrops-jararacussu}
}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.