Atheris nitschei
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Common names: Great Lakes bush viper, Nitsche's bush viper, more.

[Photo] Great Lakes Bush Viper (Atheris nitschei). Photo courtesy of Al Coritz.

Copyright (C) Al Coritz Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Atheris nitschei is a venomous viper species found in Africa from Uganda and adjacent DR Congo in the north to northern Malawi in the south. Two subspecies is currently recognized, including the typical form described here.

Description
A relatively large and stout bush viper, growing to an average length of 63 cm and a maximum of at least 73 cm. The males are smaller than the females.

Common names
Great Lakes bush viper, Nitsche's bush viper, black and green bush viper, Nitsche's tree viper. sedge viper, green viper, bush viper.

Geographic range
Central Africa from east DR Congo, Uganda and west Tanzania southward to north Malawi and north Zambia. The type locality is listed as "Mpororosumpf, Deutsch-Ost-Afrika" [Mpororo swamp, Tanzania-Rwanda border].

Habitat
Found in wetland and meadow areas, and elephant grass marshes, along small streams, sometimes in scrub and bush in valleys at higher elevations, and in mountain forests up to the bamboo zone at 1600-2800 m altitude. Common in papyrus reed around small lakes.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheris_nitschei

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