The summer sun is enjoyed not only by people and animals, but also by reptiles, which often crawl out onto roads and meadows. Serpentologists believe that snakes will never be the first to attack a person. And they do it only for the purpose of self-defense.
Instructions
Step 1
It is believed that the common viper (Vipera berus) is the prototype of all vipers. It has scales turned into scutes on the crown, sometimes one row of scales between the eyes and the supralabial scutes lying under them.
Step 2
In shape, the common viper differs from most reptiles in Europe. Its head in the back is rather wider than the neck and slightly flat, and in front it is slightly rounded. The neck is compressed laterally and clearly separated from the head and body, which is much thicker than the neck.
Step 3
The color of vipers is very diverse, but, nevertheless, it is believed that reptiles are silver-gray, light ash gray, greenish, light yellow and light brown. Throughout the snake's body, a jagged dark longitudinal stripe is visible, the color of which coincides with the color of the body. So, for example, vipers have a light yellowish-brown color and a strip of sandy color.
Step 4
In addition to this stripe, the vipers are distinguished by a pattern on the head. The middle of the crown is decorated with two longitudinal stripes with irregular spots and dashes. The stripes go from the eye shield, run in the middle of the crown, can join with a spot of a similar color and diverge, forming a triangle.
Step 5
In most cases, the underside of the reptile is black or dark gray. Each scutellum has yellowish separate or confluent spots of various shapes.
Step 6
Vipers also feature large, fiery, round eyes. Thanks to the eye shields, they give the impression of anger and deceit, especially if you remember that no other snake has a pupil in the form of an oblique longitudinal slit. In bright sun, this gap contracts into a thin, barely visible line, and at night it expands strongly. Mostly the color of the iris is bright fiery red.
