Is the hundred-step snake a venomous snake?

The hundred-step snake is known as Agkistrodon acutus, also known as seven-step snake, five-step snake, etc., is a poisonous monotype snake under the viper subfamily Agkistrodon halys. Only one species of Agkistrodon acutus belongs to Agkistrodon acutus, and it is quite famous in Asia. Especially in Taiwan and South China, it has been valued since ancient times. Let's take a look at whether the hundred-step snake is a venomous snake.

Is the hundred-step snake a venomous snake?

The hundred-step snake is a venomous snake. The venom of the Baibu snake is not toxic on the unit, but it does not prevent the snake from being more dangerous in fact, and its toxicity is greater than that of the cobra. In Shibi Township, Chenxi, Hunan Province, people bitten by this snake basically died, and those bitten by the cobra can basically be saved, according to the survey data. Dangerous incidents and even deaths caused by the bite of a hundred-step snake are indeed more common, at least in the Chinese mainland area.

Geographical distribution of Baibu snake

Baibu snake is distributed to the east of 104 °E and between 25 °N and 31 °N in China, with the largest reserves in Wuyi Mountain and Southern Anhui. The known distribution areas are Anhui (south), Chongqing, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian (north), Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi (north), Guizhou, Guangdong (north) and Taiwan province.

The living habits of the hundred-step snake

1. Environment: Baibu snake mainly lives in evergreen and deciduous mixed forests at an altitude of 400 to 700 meters above sea level. It likes to move around the ditches of Shanwu in summer. The requirements for habitat conditions are cool, ventilated, trees and water, as well as in tea gardens, farmland and firewood piles. They can climb trees and enter human rooms. In winter, they often spend the winter in natural holes formed by tree roots or in old rat holes.

2. Activity: the annual activity cycle of Baibu Snake is about 9 months from the Waking of Insects to heavy snow. The main factors affecting the activity are temperature, humidity and food. When the air temperature is 20-30 ℃, the activity is the most frequent. When the air temperature is as high as 35-38 ℃, the activity is concentrated in many directions. At night, pine handle lighting is more sensitive and has reaction to torch attack, and there is almost no obvious trend of temperature when using flashlight.

3. Food: the hundred-step snake found social rats, canine foot rats, yellow weasels and thorn-breasted frogs by gastric section, and the distribution in the mountain dock was related to the distribution and number of thorn-breasted frogs. Yellow-breasted rats were also found by gastric section, indicating that Agkistrodon acutus entered the human room, and bird feathers were identified as green woodpeckers, feeding frogs and mice in snake ponds, and young snakes were seen catching Orthoptera insects as food.

4. Reproduction: the secretion of the stinky gland at the base of the tail of the female snake has a special smell, which can attract the male snake, there is a mating phenomenon before mating, the eggs are intertwined with each other during mating, the eggs are mostly laid in the natural cave, and the tunnel is shallow, short and dry. The entrance of the cave seen in a terrace is 10 centimeters, and the tunnel is only 25 centimeters. The number of eggs varies, the young female snake lays eggs early but the number is small, the old female snake lays eggs late but the number is large, generally 12-18 eggs, egg white, oblong, egg shell soft, touch like paper, egg weight 16-18 grams, the size is 42-45 × 25-30 mm. Most of the eggs lay in a circle and stick together. they usually give birth in 1-3 days, hatch young snakes in about 24 days, grow 19 cm long when they come out of the shell, begin the first peeling 10 days later, and peel for the second time 49 days later.

5. Hibernation: the hibernation period is about 3 months from heavy snow to the following year, and the hibernating cave is deep. Snakes often live together, and sometimes live in the same hole with Agkistrodon halys. When the air temperature is 8 ℃, the snake body surface temperature is equal to the snake body surface temperature. When the temperature is higher than 8 ℃, the snake body surface temperature is always 1 ℃ lower than the air temperature. When the temperature is lower than 8 ℃, the snake body surface temperature is slightly higher than 1 ℃. When the snake body surface temperature is above 11 ℃, it can bite people. In the young snakes raised in captivity, the pupil did not move when the temperature was lower than 17 ℃, and the mouth was opened and bit when touched by tweezers at 12 ℃.