Snakes of Kazakhstan

There are various snakes in Kazakhstan, about 19 species, six species are poisonous. The most dangerous for humans are: steppe and common vipers, palasov copperhead, efa and viper.

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Viper the most common of venomous snakes, but the chances of meeting an efu or viper are very small. The main habitat of snakes is the south of Kazakhstan. Sometimes snakes become the subject of business and then you run the risk of meeting them in the city center or, worse, on public transport, since snake catchers are simple boys. You can also prepare an exotic dish from snakes somewhere in a Chinese restaurant.

And here’s a not at all exotic story: when cobra (obviously imported from China) crawled out of some restaurant and people met her in the center of Almaty. So in Almaty you can find a snake that is not at all typical for Kazakhstan. Only a specialist can determine whether a snake is poisonous or not, since the copperhead comes in different colors. This snake attacks quickly and accurately. It coils itself into rings and points the front of the body towards the threat. The snake begins to attack when a person crosses a critical distance, this distance depends on the size of the snake. If a snake somehow ends up near you, you need to urgently move away, let alone try to catch it. The snake won't give you a second chance if you miss.

Many stories can be heard about kite-arrows - a thin, light-colored snake up to 125 cm long, with tight-fitting smooth scales. In Kazakhstan, there are many legends about this snake, and one of them says that this snake is extremely poisonous and so fast that it pierces a person like an arrow, and at the same time manages to bite fatally. But this is just a legend, in fact, the snake is really very agile, but cannot cause much harm to a person, since its teeth are located deep in the oral cavity, but this is not
This means that it won’t bite you at all, you just need to be very careful.

Arrow widespread in Kazakhstan deserts and semi-deserts of all types, including dry hot foothills. It hides in rodent burrows, voids between stones or cracks in the soil. It can be found on bushes. Basically, the arrow is active only during the day, hibernating from the end of October to the end of March - beginning of April.

Sand boa - a small (up to 60 cm long) snake of a brownish color with a short, bluntly ending tail. From a distance, both ends of this snake appear to be equal in thickness.

Common Viper, as a rule, of medium size - males reach 60 cm, females 70 cm. In rare cases, they reach 1 meter in length. The coloring is very varied. On top, from grayish, brown and red-brown and bluish in color to copper-red and pure black in melanists, there is also, as a rule, along the ridge, a zigzag dark stripe. There are individuals with a wide, even stripe and an X-shaped pattern on the head. The belly is mostly dark gray or even black. The steppe viper has a body length of up to 550 mm, tail length of 70-90 mm. The body color is gray-brown or light gray with a dark zigzag stripe along the ridge, sometimes the stripe is broken into separate spots. There are not sharp dark spots on the sides. There is a dark pattern on the upper side of the head, and the belly is gray. An adult viper reaches up to 160 cm. The head is very large, wide, the muzzle is rounded, the pupil of the eye is vertical.
The upper surface of the head is covered with ribbed scales; only the tip of the muzzle is without ribs. It has a grayish-sandy or brownish-reddish color, with a row of transversely elongated dark brown spots along the back. The body is thick, ranging from light gray to dark gray with a more or less pronounced olive or reddish-brown tint. There are smaller dark spots along the sides. Specimens of almost black and brown color without a pattern are known. The head is plain, without a pattern, the belly is light, with small dark spots. The general color tone varies greatly and sometimes single-colored snakes are found.

Viper - oviparous snake. The bite of a viper is very dangerous, one thing is reassuring that this type of snake is very rare. They also say about the Snakes of Kazakhstan that on the territory of central Kazakhstan, in the Kerey River, a four-meter snake (in color reminiscent of an ordinary boa constrictor) was accidentally caught. Perhaps this is due to the fact that nuclear tests were once carried out in the Turgai region and this specimen of the snake is simply an anomalous phenomenon.

When meeting a snake, you need to remember that poisonous snakes never chase a person!