Reptilia · Squamata
Tropidolaemus wagleriBoie, 1827
Temple pitviper
Photograph by Guido Bohne, CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Oriental region, reaching 920 mm nose to tail.
Also called Wagler's Palm Viper, Wagler's Pit Viper.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Tropidolaemus
- Grows to
- 920mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 14years
Longer than 57% 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
36 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
- 2011
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Green
- Pattern on the back
- Banded, blotched
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 14years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 770mm2 ft 6 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 920mm3 ft
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 225mm8.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 315.2g11.1 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 2.09g0.07 oz
920 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Vogel et al. 2007 ("The maximal total length among our sample is 920 mm (SVL 770 mm, TaL 150 mm) for a female from Thailand (MNHN 1996.0291). Our largest male is 522 mm long (SVL 435 mm, TaL 87 mm; BMNH 95.5.1.56; Natuna Islands).", Cox et al. 2012 ("reports of unsexed specimens reaching a record length of 1300 mm" but actual records smaller: males reaching 522 and females 920 mm TL, neonates 200-250 mm 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
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1300m
- Range size
- 666,463km²
mammals, lizards, birds and frogs (Cox et al. 2012)
Banfi et al. 2023
Scharf et al. 2015, Hong et al. 2021, Cox et al. 2012
O'Shea 2018, Hong et al. 2021, Cox et al. 2012
0-1200 (O'Shea 2018), 0-1300 (Feldman 2015), lowland to 1300 m (Cox et al. 2012)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 28eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 11–41eggs
- Mean clutch
- 28eggs
Feldman et al. 2015, Meiri et al. 2019, Cox et al. 2012
mean 28 (Meiri et al. 2019), 15-41 (O'Shea 2011, O'Shea 2018), 11-18 (Cox et al. 2012)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Boie
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1827
- Type locality
- Indonesia
Keeping one
2 ft 3 in × 18 in × 4 ft 6 in(69 × 46 × 138 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 (920 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 Temple 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.
33kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 315 g, the heaviest recorded for Temple 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 female mean
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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). Tropidolaemus wagleri. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/tropidolaemus-wagleri
@misc{tropidolaemus_wagleri_2026,
title = {Tropidolaemus wagleri},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/tropidolaemus-wagleri}
}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.