Mang Mountain pit vipers are strikingly beautiful snakes with green scales to help them blend into their bamboo habitat. Native to China, their green and brown coloring is perfect camouflage for moving around a forest floor, and if the snakes stay still, they seem to vanish! See if YOU can find them. The winters in this viper’s habitat have many days of freezing temperatures. As colder days approach, Mang Mountain pit vipers crawl into caves and under rock ledges. Scientists have found that the snakes that go the deepest have the best chance of surviving until spring. Although their bite can deliver a deadly dose of venom, these snakes are shy most of the time. But a female guards her nest of eggs carefully and bites any creature that tries to steal them!
Did you know? Mang Mountain vipers were not “discovered” by science until 1989.
