Great Lakes Bush Viper
Atheris nitschei
Common names: Great Lakes bush viper, Nitsche's bush viper, more.
Atheris nitschei is a species of venomous snake, a viper in the subfamily Viperinae of the family Viperidae. The species is native to Africa. There are no subspecies that are recognized as being valid.
From the article Atheris nitschei on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Atheris nitschei is a relatively large and stout bush viper, growing to an average total length (tail included) of 60 cm (24 in) and a maximum total length of at least 80 cm (31 in). The males are smaller than the females.
Range & habitat
Atheris nitschei is found in forests of the Central African Albertine Rift, in southern and eastern DR Congo, Uganda, western Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and Zambia. The type locality is listed as "Mpororosumpf, Deutsch-Ost-Afrika" [Mpororo swamp, Tanzania-Rwanda border].
Wikipedia: “Geographic distribution”
Toxicity
Atheris nitschei has highly toxic venom like other species in the genus Atheris. Not much is known about its venom but envenomation has caused severe bleeding and hemorrhaging.
Wikipedia: “Venom”
In human culture
The specific name, nitschei, is in honor of German zoologist Hinrich Nitsche (1845–1902). The 1906 junior synonym, A. woosnami, was in honor of Kenyan game ranger Richard Bowen Woosnam (1880–1915), who later fought in World War I and was killed in action at Gallipoli.
Wikipedia: “Etymology”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Atheris nitschei in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 30880.