brown bear

viperVipers need their venom to paralyse their prey and for selfdefence,not for attacking humans. In most cases they sensethe ground vibrations from human footsteps from such a longdistance that they disappear from sight long before beingnoticed. People get bitten only when a viper fails to sense themapproaching and they step on it by accident or cut off its escape.Being sedentary animals, they move around within the radius ofabout a hundred metres. Only when searching for a hibernationplace – a rodent burrow deep underground – can they coverkilometres.viperThe viper is our only venomous snake. It has a dark zigzagpattern running along its back, while the grass snake isrecognized by light patches on the nape. Unfortunately, bothvipers and grass snakes can sometimes be black all over. Aslowworm – a limbless lizard – can be mistaken for a viperonly at a cursory glance from a distance. All three are protectedspecies.The severity of the reaction to viper venom depends on anumber of factors: on how much venom was injected, on thelocation of the bite, on the health and body weight of thepatient, on whether the person is allergic to the venom, etc. Inmore than half cases the poisoning is relatively light – no lethalviper bites are known from Estonia. Still, the patient shouldalways be taken to a hospital, and until arriving there theyshould be moved as little as possible and given plenty to drink –this way the venom will spread in the body as slowly as possibleand is quickly excreted.grass snakeslowwormEstonian Museum of Natural History•Dangerous Nature: Myths & Realityanimals 9