Saharan horned viper

The Saharan horned viper is a small venomous snake of the deserts of North Africa and parts of the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant. Its most striking feature is a pair of horn-like scales, one above each eye, although some snakes have no horns at all. Adults are usually 30 to 60 centimetres long, and the biggest recorded was 85 centimetres.

The snake lives in dry, sandy areas with a few rocky outcrops, sometimes near oases and as high as 1,500 metres. Its colour, yellowish, pale grey, pinkish or reddish brown, almost always matches the sand it lives on, and dark blotches run along the back. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern. The globe places it in the Sahara and Arabian deserts.

Sidewinding on sand

Hot desert sand is hard to cross, so this viper moves by sidewinding: it throws its body sideways in loops and presses it into the sand, leaving a trail of whole-body prints. It is mostly active at night and buries itself in sand with only its eyes and horns showing, waiting to ambush prey. It has a fairly calm temperament, but if threatened it may rub its coils together to make a warning sound.

Names old and new

Females are larger than males, while males have larger heads and eyes. Besides its common names such as desert horned viper, it is called el-ṭorîsha in Egypt and um-Goron in Libya. In ancient Egyptian writing, the picture of a horned viper stood for the sound f. Scientists have described three subspecies. The horns may be small or missing, and horns are more often found in this species than in its close relative.

On the globe

The globe places the viper in the Sahara and Arabian deserts. Look for the sand-coloured body and the pair of horns above its eyes.