Animalia > Chordata > Squamata > Viperidae > Bitis > Bitis gabonicaBitis gabonica (Gaboon Adder)Synonyms: Bitis gabonica gabonica; Cerastes gabonica; Echidna gabonica Bitis gabonica, most commonly known as the Gaboon viper, is a viper species found in the rainforests and savannas of sub-Saharan Africa. Like all vipers, it is venomous. It is not only the largest member of the genus Bitis, but also the world's heaviest viperid, and it has the longest fangs – up to 2 inches in length (5 cm), and it has highest venom yield of any snake. Two subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here. |
Adult Weight [1] | 5.249 lbs (2.381 kg) | | Diet [2] | Carnivore | | Litter Size [1] | 156 | Maximum Longevity [3] | 18 years | Nocturnal [2] | Yes | Venomous [4] | Yes |
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Name |
Countries |
Ecozone |
Biome |
Species |
Report |
Climate |
Land Use |
Albertine Rift montane forests |
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi,Tanzania |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Angolan Miombo woodlands |
Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests |
Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Central Congolian lowland forests |
Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Central Zambezian Miombo woodlands |
Tanzania, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Zambia, Malawi |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Cross-Niger transition forests |
Nigeria |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests |
Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Eastern Arc forests |
Tanzania, Kenya |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Eastern Congolian swamp forests |
Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Eastern Guinean forests |
Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Togo |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Eastern Miombo woodlands |
Tanzania, Mozambique |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Eastern Zimbabwe montane forest-grassland mosaic |
Zimbabwe, Mozambique |
Afrotropic |
Montane Grasslands and Shrublands |
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Guinean montane forests |
Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Maputaland coastal forest mosaic |
Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Mount Cameroon and Bioko montane forests |
Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Niger Delta swamp forests |
Nigeria |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Nigerian lowland forests |
Nigeria, Benin |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Northeastern Congolian lowland forests |
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Republic of the Congo |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Northern Congolian forest-savanna mosaic |
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Central African Republic, Cameroon |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic |
Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Northwestern Congolian lowland forests |
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Southern Congolian forest-savanna mosaic |
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Southern Miombo woodlands |
Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Southern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic |
Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Victoria Basin forest-savanna mosaic |
Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Western Congolian forest-savanna mosaic |
Gabon, Congo, Democratic Rep of the Congo, Angola |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Western Congolian swamp forests |
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Western Guinean lowland forests |
Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Zambezian and Mopane woodlands |
South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia, Malawi |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Zambezian coastal flooded savanna |
Mozambique |
Afrotropic |
Flooded Grasslands and Savannas |
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Zambezian Cryptosepalum dry forests |
Zambia |
Afrotropic |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Name |
Location |
Endemic |
Species |
Website |
Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa |
Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania |
No |
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Eastern Afromontane |
Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe |
No |
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Guinean Forests of West Africa |
Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Togo |
No |
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Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany |
Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland |
No |
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Attributes / relations provided by ♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109 ♦ 2Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org♦ 3de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774 ♦ 4Venomous snakes and antivenoms search interface, World Health Organization ♦ 5Conservation Biology of the Gaboon Adder (Bitis gabonica) in South Africa, Jonathan Kirk Warner, A dissertation submitted to the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Science (2009) ♦ 6Aethomys ineptus, CHRISTIAN T. CHIMIMBA AND ALICIA V. LINZEY, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 809, pp. 1-7 (2008) ♦ 7Petrodromus tetradactylus, Mark R. Jennings and Galen B. Rathbun, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 682, pp. 16 (2001) ♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database |
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0
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