The "Dragon" Horned Strange Snake appeared in Wuyanling, Zhejiang
In order to protect wild animals and plants, but also in order to maintain the ecology of the earth, so there are many protected areas, there are many national nature reserves, and located in the subtropical North and South Asian Belt boundary of the Wuyanling National Nature Reserve, not only the area of up to 18861.5 hectares, complex and diverse terrain and landforms are also more unique, the birthplace of the Feiyun River is here, here is not only a national nature reserve of wild animals and forest ecological types, but also the closest such protection area in China to the East China Sea.
There is no doubt that there are many rare wild animals in this reserve, more than 50 species are national key protected wildlife species, including China's first-class protected animals yellow-bellied horned pheasant, golden eagle, golden leopard, golden-spotted beaked phoenix butterfly, white-necked long-tailed pheasant are also distributed here.
Also in the Wuyanling National Nature Reserve, snake experts have discovered a very rare snake animal, which is called the Horned Plain Spearhead Viper. It is surprised and delighted by the fact that it has something like a "dragon" horn above its eyes, and it has been 7 years since the last time this horned snake was found in Zhejiang.
What does the Horned Viper look like, and is it poisonous?
Although the horned viper is not common in China, it is indeed a highly venomous snake, and like many other venomous snakes that many people may have seen, it is a snake that can secrete venom, and it is still relatively toxic. But unlike some venomous snakes that are not easy to identify, the horned spearhead viper looks very distinctive, in addition to the gelatinous protrusion structure above the eyes mentioned earlier, their bodies are relatively slender, and the tail is entangled.
You must not imagine that the Horned Viper perceives the temperature around it, which is actually achieved through its cheek socket, and the long poisonous fangs can also be moved at any time. Because the picture of the snake is easy to cause some people to feel uncomfortable, so there is no picture, if you are more interested, you may wish to check it, it looks actually not so terrible, and there is a little cute, especially the protrusion on the head that is similar to the "dragon" horn.
However, it is precisely because the Horned Plains spearhead viper is so rare and unique, so the discovery of this snake animal in Wuyanling, Zhejiang Province, surprises and delights everyone, which means that we have more opportunities to understand this little-known snake species, and the Wuyanling Nature Reserve is like a "natural biological gene pool" that protects these rare wild animals and allows them to thrive here, which also shows that the existence of the reserve is really necessary to better realize the coexistence of nature and humans.
How rare is the Horned Viper and where has it appeared?
To know that the Hornyuan spearhead viper is very rare, this is not only rare in Zhejiang, the number in China is not much, China's first discovery of the Hornyuan spearhead viper is still in 1996, when the discovery site was Guangdong Ruyuan County Wuzhishan Forest District, although later in Guangdong's Ruyuan County Patio Mountain Forest Area and Yingde Shimentai Conservation Area, the first-class Guizhou Province's Libo Maolan Conservation Area has appeared, but Zhejiang found that the Jiaoyuan Spearhead Viper was already in 2014.
If you add that it was found in Guangxi and Fujian in 2015 and 2020 respectively, then the distribution points of the Horned Plains spearhead pit viper in China are only 8 in total. From this, you should be able to see that the distribution of the horned spearhead pit viper is different from other snakes, and in nature it is not a flaky distribution, but a dotted distribution.
Some people may not know that the Horned Plains Spearhead Viper was first discovered in Vietnam, the specific time is 1930, but the distance from northern Vietnam to the distribution of horned spearhead pit vipers in China is very far away, and they are also very rare in the wild, it is difficult to find their traces, so for the time being, it is not determined whether these Horned Plains spearhead pit vipers found in China are the same species as the Horned Plains Spearhead Viper in northern Vietnam.
Horned vipers are rare, but there are not many types of venomous snakes, so don't judge whether a snake is venomous based on its appearance alone:
In the wild environment, it is indeed difficult to encounter the Horned Plains spearhead pit viper, but other venomous snakes are not necessarily, especially do not judge whether a snake is venomous from the appearance alone, even if it is a snake expert, it may not be 100% correct. It should be known that the number of snakes is huge, there are many snake species, and even some snake species that humans have not yet discovered or even distinguished in the wild, just as the discovery time of the Horned Viper is not very early.
There are more than 3,000 kinds of snakes, and the number of snake species in China is also more than 200 kinds, and the poisonous snakes for humans account for about 15% of the number of snake species, such as the distributed king cobra, the original spearhead pit viper, the golden ring snake, the barramundi and the sea snake in China.
With the increase of our protection of the natural environment, there are no people on the mountain who have been cut down indiscriminately, and the vegetation is very lush, in this case, it is best not to go up the mountain at will, it is really difficult to say what poisonous snakes are encountered, but we do not necessarily recognize, this situation is more dangerous.