Vipera renardi

The head is slightly triangular, clearly distinguished from the neck; the terminal scale is the main one; the nostril is small and located in the lower half of the nasal scale; the eyes are medium-sized, the pupils are upright and oval, and there are many small scales around the eyes. There are thick black spots on the back of the head. The back of the body and tail is gray-brown, with a row of wavy or serrated dark brown vertical stripes on the back, and a row of thick dark brown spots on each side of the body. The ventral surface is gray, and the base of each ventral scale is dark brown, with a gray-white free edge, and a row of large or small black spots, which are connected to form several rows of vertical lines before and after. There are 10-13 small scales before the frontal scales (some 9-15, including the terminal scales); 9 upper lip scales (a few 8), the number of scales on both sides is sometimes inconsistent, the fourth (some fourth and fifth) scales are just below the eye,

In China, it is distributed in the Junggar Basin, Tacheng Basin, western Tianshan Mountains and Yili Valley in Xinjiang. Abroad, it is distributed in southern and eastern Europe, southwestern and eastern Turkey, northern Iran, east to Kazakhstan and Altai Mountains, and south to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Oriental viper belongs to the family Viperidae of the order Squamata. It is a small viper.

Oriental viper is gentle and does not actively attack humans. Even if people want to kill it, it will not fight back, but only run away. It mainly feeds on small rodents, lizards, and insects.

Oriental viper was once widely distributed, but due to frequent bites on humans and livestock and the shrinking habitat, its number has declined, and it is a second-level protected animal in the "National Key Protected Wildlife List".

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