Saturday, July 14, 2007

The Great Snake Hunt of 2007: Coda

Further to my previous posting, I have been able to confirm that the serpent that was killed by our mighty hunters was a puff adder (Bitis arientis), an extremely piece of work if you are unfortunate enough to be bitten by it.

The puff adder is considered by many to be the most dangerous snake in Africa because it is widespread, extremely poisonous, and prone to bite. It is a thick snake about a metre long, so the example the workers killed was a little smaller than average. Although the puff adder causes more human deaths per year than any other snake in Africa, a bite is not necessarily fatal. Loss of limbs due to gangrene or necrosis is, however, a very possible outcome.

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