📸 PhotoPhoto: Cheng Te Hsu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Hundred-pace Viper
Deinagkistrodon acutus (Hundred-pace Viper · ヒャッポダ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its maximum length of 1.5 m is roughly the height of an adult human (Comparison).
- 💡 Animal Diversity Web notes that in China its venom has long been used in folk remedies for arthritis and tendon or bone pain, and more recently in anticoagulant drugs that stop bleeding or dissolve blood clots.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Hundred-pace Viper is a stout pit viper living in moist, shaded mountain forests of southeastern China, recorded up to an elevation of 1,400 m.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
It has a heavy body with a pointed snout turned upward at the tip, and a heat-sensing pit between the eye and nostril. Along each side of the body run 15–23 pairs of large, dark triangular markings.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It eats birds, rodents, lizards, frogs, and toads, and may remain motionless for days after a large meal. Though sedentary, it may strike without warning if startled or provoked.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List VU (2021) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/190644/1955997
- • IUCN Red List category VU — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 6CGGW
- • iucnredlist.org — 1955997
- • wikidata.org — Q716476
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Deinagkistrodon acutus 295892035.jpg
- • animaldiversity.org — Deinagkistrodon acutus
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Beth Reinke · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Vipera berus)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.