(Source: Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters)

Green bamboo viper

The green bamboo viper grows to about 50cm length on average and about 90cm maximum. It is green in color as befits a tree snake. It has a red tail and is thus called the red-tailed green bamboo viper in Chinese. If a snake of this kind has no red tail, it is a non-venomous common green snake. Therefore, the “red tail” is the venom tag of this kind of snake. Most female green bamboo vipers have a fine white line running horizontally across the abdomen. Besides this distinctive feature, make green bamboo vipers have a fine red line running horizontally next to the fine white line. The green bamboo viper has a triangular head, red eyes, a pit located between the eyes and the nose on each side. As the temperature detector of the snake, there are blood vessels and trigeminal nerves in the pits for detecting the micro changes of temperature in the surroundings in order to search for small mammals for food.

The species is often found in southeast China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and mid- and low-elevation areas on Taiwan and Lanyu. They live in the mountainside or near cultivated lands and are fond of rather humid environments. They are nocturnal, slow in movement but very aggressive. Frogs, lizards, birds and small mammals are their staple foods. They are viviparous and produce about 2-15 offspring each breeding cyclesummer. These baby snakes will become sexually mature after about one year.

In Taiwan, the green bamboo snake is the number one attacker of humans. As it has rather little venom, the mortality rate of victims is around 1-2%, which is much lower than people bitten by other common venomous snakes. It has a pair of big solenoglyphic teeth leaving obvious marks on the victims. Its venom contains hemorrhagic toxins, and the wound often swells and bleeds with blistering.