B. taeniata teeth anyone?

Not my pic (I believe it is a Dave Roberts pic, later reproduced in a U.S. magazine), but certainly an impressive front set of teeth. This animal was a B. taeniata from Suriname that died in captivity sometime in the 80's at a U.S. zoo (and handled after death).

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The late Dr.Paulo Burheim of IMTM was conducting a study of morphometrics on this specimen, and that's quite a gap.

Obs. i cant tell you if Bothriopsis taeniata is rare or common but the first time i visited Brazil and after meeting Dr. Burheim at IMTM for some help with logistics, i was sent to the "Oriente" or Para, Amazonian, Brazil and in return i identified the first Speckled Forest pit-viper he ever seen, collected live in the city of Manuas, Amazonia, Brazil, the snake was a beautiful golden speckled specimen about sixty centimeters long.

I remember seeing a pit viper near Iquitos, Peru (Amazonas) clutching a fig root not far off from the path my guide took me through. It looked very similar to this one, but I can't be sure because it was a long time ago.

If they usually have fangs "that" size then they would rival the fer-de-lance/terciopelo/Bothrops Asper. Although this one isn't even close in size/length.

The same morning, a poison dart frog jumped out of my hand and landed in my friends coffee cup. I forgot to tell him and I think he cleaned it, because well...he's still alive. Laughing

Also me i'm really impressed from the size of the teeth of this specie.
A video show the teeth of this species here: http://us.clipdealer.com/video/media/62429
I try to take a couple of photo next meal to the my specimens.
Regards
Michele

Another captive specimen (live) from Sipaliwini, Suriname. This female is probably in the range of 175 cm.

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In contrast, a 60 cm male from Loreto, Peru (in situ)

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A C.B. juvenile Suriname taeniata (below)(related to the female in the top photo) This pic was published in a magazine, I think the photo is from Bill Love.

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A C.B. female from the Rio Putumayo area in Ecuador

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Thanks

Michael

My records show fang length of adult specimens of Bothriopsis taeniata average from 2.54 centimeters to 3 centimeters or 1 inch to 1.5 total .

Babies and yearling fang length, are half that , but much slimmer cylinders.

Obs. Bothriopsis taeniata are first cousins of Bothriopsis bilineata, yet their total girth (Bone structure) and length at just under 2 meter, make them more similar to the non-venomous Corallus hortulanus, which inhabit some of the same areas , in size . The Speckled Forest pit-viper are the largest, New world, prehensile tailed, arboreal, venomous snake known.

Michele,

Those fangs are incredibly long in that video clip! Watch yourself my friend......

Michael

The length of their teeth is really interesting.Does anyone know,why are they so long (the teeth),whats their purpose ?

Thanks,
Regards,

Radovan

Normally snakes with longer fangs eating birds or/and bats!

An adult, Speckled Forest pit-viper, (wildcaught) Bothriopsis taeniata. 1.80 cm. locality, Ecuador, South America. B. taeniata teeth anyone? 33671.th

Login to view enlargement.

I think it has been traditionally held that many arboreal snakes such as green tree pythons or emerald tree boas have longer teeth to help penetrate the feathers of birds - a seemingly reasonable idea except that in a limited study of dietary intake of arboreal boids it was found that both the green tree python and emerald tree boa ate predominately mammals as adults (and little to no birds). Living in a three dimensional above-ground environment such as trees, however, may make it desireable to have longer teeth for prey capture and to retain the prey once captured.

In venomous species, fang length may not translate as easily according to the environment and there may be different selective pressures that have influenced fang length. For many venomous snakes, longer fangs presumably function to penetrate the prey better and to deliver venom to kill the prey as well as begin to digest it. Long fang length is not strictly limited to arboreal species especially when one considers an almost exclusively terrestrial species such as Bitis gabonica, a snake with some of the longest fangs of all venomous snake species. It is believed that this species uses its fangs to help manipulate prey items when swallowing as well as help retain its grip of the prey once seized. On the other hand, Bothriechis schlegelii, a snake that is probably more arboreal in habits than Bothriopsis taeniata has considerably shorter fangs than B. taeniata…...it is very perplexing.

A few more pics of a 1.5 year old C.B. female (+/- 90 cm TL) from Ecuador ........

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There is no particular rule for fang length in relation to prey, at least as a contrast between feeding on birds and mammals. We looked at that in Bothrops and Gloydius some years ago - it turns out that the bird-feeding Bothrops insularis actually has shorter fangs than the mammal-feeding B. jararaca. In Gloydius, there was no difference, but their fang length in relation to head size was the same as in B. insularis already. This is really something that deserves more study. The paper is online: http://biology.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/Publications/2005_Bothrops_insularis.pdf

Thank You (M.Burger,W.W.) for a nice explanation.A really interesting topic.
It would be interesting to know,whats the main prey of taeniatas in nature.For sure it depends on the age/length of them.I can imagine,that as babies -frogs or lizards (mainly or only),but are there some scient.researches of their stomach as adults?The rate of birds to mammals could explain it.

Kind regards,
Radovan

Radovan,

I believe that Martins et al. (2002. Ecological and Phylogenetic Correlates of Feeding Habits in Neotropical Pitvipers of the genus Bothrops. In The Biology of the Vipers. pp 307-328) considered B. taeniata a dietary generalist with frogs (41%) and mammals (41%) constituting the majority of the diet in their sample (n= 22) but also including lizards (14%), birds (4%), and centipedes. I am sure you are right about frogs and lizards being part of the diet in young.

Michael

Although not relating to teeth, here are a few more pics. This is a C.B. male Bothriopsis taeniata (Ecuador). The first pic is at 1-2 months old.

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Photographing this species, like other snakes, is dependent upon the lighting. The pic below is of the same snake using flash photography. All of the greens and yellows are lost, but his attitude is still there.

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At 8 months of age (below) under natural lighting.

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Duellman using data from Santa Cecilia, Ecuador 1978, determined that of the 37 prey species eaten by various snake species, the arboreal species exploited 18 different prey species, and no two arboreal snakes ate the same prey species.

The semiarboreal species including( Bothriopsis taeniata )exploited eight prey species.

Arboreal snakes feed on gastropods, arthropods, fish, frogs, lizards, snakes, birds and mammals, including marsupials, insectivores, bats, carnivores and artiodactyls.

Some arboreal species exhibit ontogenetic or opportunistic variation in diet.

Most arboreal snakes are tropical and prey on frogs and lizards as per Duellman at some stage of life.

Shine 1983 reports that among the study conducted 1983 , on arboreal snakes 53% ate frogs, 65% ate reptiles 43% ate birds, 26% ate mammals.

Reference, Snakes Ecology and Behaviour, Richard A. Siegel , Joseph T.Collins.

Hello,

M.Burger,A.J.Montejo-thanks for Your informations.Im a bit surprised about feeding on centipedes etc.I know,its only small percentage,but still pretty "COOL"

Kind regards,
Radovan

A few pics of a feeding sequence showing teeth imbedded in prey (thawed rodent) and then used in helping to manipulate prey in preparation for swallowing.

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