Reptilia · Squamata
Gloydius caucasicusNikolsky, 1916
Caucasian pitviper
Photograph by موسی مزینانیان Mousa Mazinanian, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 670 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Gloydius
- Grows to
- 670mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than only 28% 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 405.6mm16 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 670mm2 ft 2 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 167.3mm6.5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 189.3mm7.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 162.5g5.7 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 42.14g1.5 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 3.46g0.12 oz
Shi et al. 2016 (590 mm max total length, female SVL 483.9, hatchling 148.2), Kamali 2020 (max total length 67 cm), Fatemizadeh et al. 2023 (10 males 40.50 – 53.70 mean 45.67 ± 1.39 cm total length, mean 39.77 cm SVL, mass 27.31 – 61.44, mean 39.34 ± 3.41 g; 10 females 41.50 – 47.70 mean 45.42 ± 0.73 cm total length, mean SVL 40.56 cm; 5 non gravid females 36.40 – 50.35 mean 42.14 ± 3.21g; newborn 150.00–219.00 mean 189.29 ± 14.57 mm total Length, 167.29 mm SVL, mass 2.57 – 4.34 mean 3.49 ± 0.49 g)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 3000m
- Range size
- 287,808km²
rodents, lizards and insects (Kamali 2020, Fatemizadeh et al. 2023)
Kamali 2020
Asadi et al. 2019, I view this as weak evidence, since they are simply referring to it as an example of a terrestrial poikilotherm
up to 3000 (Fatemizadeh et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–5eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3–5eggs
Shakoori et al. 2015, Fatemizadeh et al. 2023
means: 3-5 (Shakoori et al. 2015), 2-5 (Fatemizadeh et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Nikolsky
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1916
- Type locality
- Azerbaijan
Keeping one
2 ft 2 in × 13 in × 20 in(67 × 34 × 50 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 2 ft 2 in (670 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 Caucasian pitviper. 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.
18kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 163 g, the heaviest recorded for Caucasian pitviper — 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 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 it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Average clutch
- — 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
- — Conservation status
- — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Habitat
- — 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). Gloydius caucasicus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gloydius-caucasicus
@misc{gloydius_caucasicus_2026,
title = {Gloydius caucasicus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gloydius-caucasicus}
}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.