Russell's Viper

This post is being written after I read an article about a 21 year old man named Cody Bartolini, young owner of mojavereptiles was caught attempting to sell venomous reptiles over state lines.

Time and time again I have written posts telling and in fact warning buyers/sellers to check local and state laws beforehand

While I myself love and adore the beautiful, fascinating and very necessary animals that snakes are, I am not a professional nor have I been properly trained by a professional herpetologist in the handling of venomous snakes to feel sufficiently confident to do so.

I do love all snakes but I'm not stupid. I do not have a death wish.

All that being said, I would like to begin my post about the Russell's Viper.

According to herpetologist Mark O'Shea there are two types of Russell's Vipers, the Indian Russell's and the Sri Lankan Russell's Viper.

Read Mark O'Shea's article "Blood Sweat & Snakebites" here.

Russell's Viper (Daboia or Vipera Russelli) regarded as comprising five subspecies, russelli, pulchella, siamensis, formensis & limitis,distributed discontinuously throughout 10 south Asian countries. (Warrell 1989)

Studies of Wüster et al. (1992) have rejected the validity of several of the subspecies and supported the concept of western (russelli) and eastern (siamensis) forms.

Previous quoted data from Venomous Snakes: Ecology, Evolution and snakebite by Roger S. Thorpe, Wolfgang Wüster and Anita Malhotra.

The data I quoted seems to support what O'Shea said on there being two major species of Indian and Sri Lankan Russell's Vipers.

The following material cited from:
Population systematics of Russell's viper: a multivariate study
WOLFGANG WÜSTER, SATOKO OTSUKA, ANITA MALHOTRA, ROGER S. THORPE Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 1992 47:1 97

A multivariate analysis of the population systematics of Russell's viper, based on scalation and colour pattern characters, reveals that the populations of this viper constitute two well-defined taxa: a western form, comprising all populations from the Indian subcontinent, and an eastern form, comprising all populations from east of the Bay of Bengal.

The two forms could be considered either as subspecies of one species, or as two separate species, depending on the species concept used. Within the western form, there is no clear pattern of geographic variation. Within the eastern form, the populations from the Lesser Sunda Islands are clearly divergent from the populations of mainland Asia and Java.

The conventionally recognized subspecies of Vipera russelli fail to portray this pattern of geographic variation. There is no clear relationship between the pattern of geographic variation in morphology and the pattern of geographic variation in the clinical effects of the venom in human bite victims: some populations with considerable differences in venom effects are equally distinct morphologically, whereas other populations with equally strong venom differences are morphologically very similar.

The distribution of Russell's viper can be attributed to Pleistocene changes in climate and sea level, coupled with the viper's ecological requirements, which appear to include a seasonally dry climate.

The next post will carry on with the differences in the two species.

Keeping Venomous Reptiles.

Due to the serious possible consequences of handling such venomous snakes I thought I would do a post on each snake listed from Cody Bartolini of MojaveReptiles impressive list of snakes.

My first post will be information about the Russell's Viper.

I will use information from a few books I have as well as information posted from Universities and notable reptile sites.

In the event that I post some bit of data that is either incorrect or that has been since updated please write and let me know so that I can correct it.

By no means do I totally discourage people from learning about snakes. I think everyone should learn enough to understand that snakes are not the horror show villains they have been made out to be. They are beautiful and necessary to the environment.

Without them we would soon be overrun with disease-ridden, destructive rodents.

Snakes are more afraid of us than we are of them. Usually if given the opportunity a snake will retreat to safety rather than attack.

If you see or encounter any snake, please think before you simply destroy an animal that is only trying to live.

Give it the chance to escape and it likely will.

Be careful where you get snakes!

According to an article posted on Venomous Reptiles.org, MojaveReptiles owner has gotten himself into some serious trouble trying to sell illegal snakes across state lines.

In most of my posts I tell my readers to check their local and state laws before buying/selling any venomous reptile. In most cases it is illegal to own venomous reptiles unless in a zoo or qualified center.

Personally, I wonder if Mr. Bartolini really understands what happens to the human body with the venom of many of the snakes listed in the article.

The African Boomslang is one of the deadliest snakes on earth and if I am not mistaken it has the most toxic venom in all of the African snakes.

I shivered thinking about some of the effects from bites of the snakes that a 21 year old owns and obviously has to handle or at the least, come in close contact with on a weekly basis.

Cody if you happen to come across this post take it from me, if you love snakes, learn about them first and do all you can to educate others about them and above all else, love, respect and protect them. I do. That being said if you continue to handle deadly snakes it isn't a question of 'if' you will be bitten but 'when' you will be bitten. It is highly likely that you could easily die from many of the snakes you owned.

People please think twice before handling venomous snakes of any kind. Let's leave that to the herpetologists and other properly trained professionals.

Read the story from VenomousReptiles.org below.

Las Vegas resident Cody Bartolini, 21, who went by the name “mojavereptiles” when advertising his snakes for sale on Internet Web sites, recently pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of attempted unlawful sale of wildlife.

Bartolini made the mistake of attempting to sell illegally possessed snakes across state lines.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s plea memorandum, Bartolini was living with 48 snakes of various species, including Tanzanian black mambas, green mambas, king cobras, forest cobras, tiapans, banded Egyptian cobras, Gaboon vipers, West African bush vipers, puff adders, boomslangs, as well as a caiman, Gila monster, and an alligator snapping turtle. The collection was worth almost $11,000.