Reptilia · Squamata
Echis coloratusGünther, 1878
Burton’s carpet viper
Photograph by דוד דוד.. Original uploader was Androctonus at he.wikipedia, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 905 mm nose to tail.
Also called Holy-Land Saw-scaled Viper, Palestine Saw-scaled Viper.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Echis
- Grows to
- 905mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 28.3years
Longer than 56% 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
41 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
- 2012
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 28.3years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 27.63°C82 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 23–37°C73–99 °F
over 28 years in captivity (Bar et al. 2021)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 820mm2 ft 8 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 609mm24 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 905mm3 ft
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 213.1mm8.5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 215mm8.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 372.5g13.1 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 88g3.1 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 6.5g0.23 oz
900 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), max 800 mm (Carranza et al. 2021), 450-700 (Eid 2021), Bar et al. 2021 (160-905 mm total length, mass 1.5-580 g), 582.2 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, in which adult female mean SVL 609 mm, n = 41, Aug2023, mean neonate SVL 213.1 mm, max SVL 820 mm), Spawls et al. 2023 (40-80, hatchlings 20-23 cm TL)
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
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Lowest it lives · above sea level
- 29m
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 500m
- Range size
- 1,569,798km²
lizards, toads, rodents and invertebrates (Carranza et al. 2021), lizards, mammals and amphibians (Eid 2021), birds, lizards, arthropods, rodents and amphibians (Bar et al. 2021), rodents, lizards, snakes, amphibians and arthropods (Trape 2023)
Bar et al. 2021
(SM, pers. obs., Carranza et al. 2021, Eid 2021, Spawls et al. 2023), mostly nocturnal but daylight ambushes are not rare (Bar et al. 2021), nocturnal and crepuscular (Trape 2023)
"surficial (terrestrial, non-scansorial)" (Gearty et al. 2021), terrestrial and ecellent climber (Bar et al. 2021), terrestrial (Spawls et al. 2023)
0-500 (Carranza et al. 2021), -360 (SM, pers. Obs.), 0-2000 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 7eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–20eggs
- Mean clutch
- 7eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 0.75per year
Feldman et al. 2015
mean 7 (Meiri et al. 2019), 6-10 (O'Shea 2011, Bar et al. 2021), up to 20 (Chippaux and Jackson 2019), 4-10 (Carranza et al. 2021, Spawls et al. 2023), 4-15 (Eid 2021)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Echis coloratus coloratus GÜNTHER 1878 Echis coloratus terraesanctae BABOCSAY 2003
- Described by
- Günther
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1878
- Type locality
- Saudi Arabia
Keeping one
3 ft × 18 in × 2 ft 3 in(91 × 45 × 68 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 3 ft (905 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 82 °F (27.6 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
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.
38kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 373 g, the heaviest recorded for Burton’s carpet 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
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — 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). Echis coloratus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/echis-coloratus
@misc{echis_coloratus_2026,
title = {Echis coloratus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/echis-coloratus}
}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.