West African Bush Viper

DESCRIPTION:

The West African Bush Viper is also known as the Green Bush Viper. Adults average 50 cm reaching a maximum total length of 70 cm.. The tail is relatively long. The body is relatively slender and laterally compressed, with a large bulky head. The scales are heavily keeled, giving the snake a slightly rough appearance. Adult West African Bush Viper’s have a uniform bright green ground color, sometimes overlaid with a series of faint yellow, roughly paired spots running dorsally along the length of the body. The belly is pale green in color. Newborns are tan-brown in color, but this changes to a yellow-green hue with irregular dark spots within a day or two.

HABITS & HABITAT:

The West African Bush Viper can be found in forests, in dense foliage about 1 to 2 meters above the ground.

DISTRIBUTION:

Guinea (Conakry), Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon.

VENOM:

The venom of the West African Bush Viper is Haemotoxic & Cytoxic. Atheris chlorechis venom can lead to major systemic envenoming, shock, blood loss due to coagulopathy, and renal failure. Not much is known about their venom except that it is strongly hemotoxic.

SYMPTOMS:

Pain & swelling. There are now several reports of bites that have led to severe haemorrhaging; Dizziness; Nausea; Headache; Regional lymphadenopathy; Localized oedema; Severe envenomation may include thrombocytopenia & coagulopathy & haemorrhage; Haemolysis (fatigue, pale skin, heart palpitations (tachycardia), shortness of breath (dyspnea); Yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes (jaundice); Enlarged spleen; Renal failure; Fatalities are reported, but poorly described.

FIRST AID:

Pressure bandage.

ANTIVENOM:

There is no antivenom, however there are reports that ICP can be helpful. Symptomatic replacement therapy is applied due to the absence of an Atheris specific antivenom.