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Lancehead Pit Viper

Bothrops atrox

Photo by Cody.conway
Published on Project Noah
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-1.05793, -75.8161

Field Notes

Description:

The common lancehead has many distinct features of the Viperidae family. The color of this snake can take on many shades for camouflage. It can be gray, brown, olive, or green. This snake also has large, dark, pale, margined triangles with points that meet on the dorsal line. The head is triangular (lance-shaped) and pointed. The common lancehead can grow up to 6.5 feet in length (Phelp, 1981).

Notes:

Juvenile bothrops can be found hunting for prey around 3 ft off the ground during their younger stages of life, but are most often encountered on the ground waiting for prey to walk past. I wanted to capture an image of what this snake would look like hunting from a branch. The first image is the snake in its ambush position where it was located on the forest floor in the amazon, using careful handling techniques I repositioned the snake to a low hanging vine for the second image in the series.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (2)

Thanks Maria, yeah the second shot is "less natural" but does occur in some juveniles as they are slightly aboreal. But the first shot is its natural "ambush" pose.
Especially like the second shot!
Photographed
PublishedMay 26, 2013

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