Slender Burrowing Asp

DESCRIPTION:

The Slender Burrowing Asp is a small slender burrowing asp averaging 30 to 50 cm reaching up about 70 cm. Adult snakes are quite shiny and usually black, blackish-grey, or occasionally, blackish brown.

HABITS & HABITAT:

The Slender Burrowing Asp is adapted to various habitats including dry and moist savanna, woodland and forest. Burrowing asps live and hunt in holes underground but may emerge at night, especially during and after rain. If molested it will typically arch its neck into an inverted U-shape, pointing its nose at the ground. It will also thrash or jerk around, sometimes coiling and uncoiling. It will sometimes turn the head and neck upside down and lash from side to side.

DISTRIBUTION:

Senegal, Gambia, S Mali, S Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Guinea (Conakry), Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, N Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire: Province Orientale), Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria, Republic of South Sudan, Chad.

VENOM:

The venom of the Slender Burrowing Asp is Cytotoxic & Haemotoxic.

SYMPTOMS:

Immediate, intense pain and burning and the bite site; Swelling is common and may affect the entire limb; Blood filled blister; Necrosis is the usual outcome, as well as the loss of a digit.

FIRST AID:

Analgesia; Elevation; Bedrest.

ANTIVENOM:

Not effective.