Reptilia · Squamata
Gloydius shedaoensisZhao, 1979
Shedao island pitviper
No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.
A tree-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Palearctic region, reaching 990 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Gloydius
- Grows to
- 990mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 9.35years
Longer than 62% 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
- Vulnerable
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2011
- Red List criteria
- D2
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Brown
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 9.35years
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 591mm23.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 541mm21.5 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 990mm3 ft 3 in
- Female length · mean, nose to tail
- 670mm2 ft 2 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 219.5mm8.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 156.2g5.5 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 5.7g0.2 oz
990 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Wang et al. 2023 (female standard length [probably total length, unsure] 400~800 mm), Qiu et al. 2023 (, "The total length of the baby snakes is 192–247 mm and they weigh 4.5–6.8 g (Li 1999)"; total length (both shedaoensis and qianshanensis subspecies) 21 females: 540-780, mean 670 mm, 14 males 573-815, mean 674 mm; SVL only of qianshanensis, 11 females 465-587, mean 541 mm, 9 males 495-591, mean 548 mm)
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
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Grassland, Shrubland
- Biome
- Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
- Region
- Palearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 220m
- Range size
- 20.8km²
birds (Wang et al. 2021), birds, in some populations rodents too, juveniles eat centipedes (Qiu et al. 2023)
Sit (Feldman 2015, Qiu et al. 2023)
Feldman 2015
O'Shea 2018, Wang et al. 2021, Qiu et al. 2023
0-215 (O'Shea 2018)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 4.2eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–16eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4.2eggs
Meiri et al. 2019
mean 4.2 (Meiri et al. 2019), 1-8 (O'Shea 2018), 3-16 (Qiu et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Gloydius shedaoensis shedaoensis (ZHAO 1979) Gloydius shedaoensis qianshanensis LI 1999
- Described by
- Zhao
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1979
- Type locality
- China
Keeping one
Shedao island pitviper is assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.
2 ft 5 in × 19.5 in × 4 ft 10 in(74 × 50 × 149 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 3 in (990 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 Shedao island 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.
17kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 156 g, the heaviest recorded for Shedao island 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 · 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
- — Hatchling length · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — 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
- — 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
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Population trend
- — 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). Gloydius shedaoensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gloydius-shedaoensis
@misc{gloydius_shedaoensis_2026,
title = {Gloydius shedaoensis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gloydius-shedaoensis}
}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.