Mario Schweiger wrote:Mr. Petr Vozenilek (from Czech republic) died on February 24th, 2003 after a bite of a full grown Vipera latastei
(a old man?¿)
Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:etting one bite after another (cf. Gabri's story) is going to end badly someday
I thought the same. But this guy is now more carefully and use gloves always, having the same caution with our Vipera than when he visit another countries to Peltopelor, Echis... The problem is that we think our vipers are not dangerous. I think if I was bitten by latastei I would survive, but sometimes our body don´t response good. I´m very nervous so maybe I would be like a hamster and the venom would actue very quickly and I will lose the conscience in some minutes, I don´t know and I hope to not have troubles never. But this kind of post with people bad by snake venom are "good" for this: be caution!! (This post, the post of Mario about the Crotalus in a zoo(Crotalus is another history of course but...)...). But usually I thing genus Vipera bites don´t finish in death so the problem herping is not so hard like if you are living in south Africa, India or something like that. For example, in your trip to Gredos, one of your friends was bitten by latastei and he was "as good as possible"
The incredible of Vipera latastei (and I guess of many vipers) is that if you see a snake like Malpolon, Hemorrhois, etc...in the field this snake run quickly to the closer burrow and run to the most deep place to try to scape of the predator. But vipers sometimes actue different. Last spring I was walking close to walls and suddenly I saw a big latastei female sunbathing in the down place of the wall, totally stretched over a dry thistles. In less than 1 second it run to a closer burrow in the wall. I jump to the another side of the wall, because this side (shadow side) was recently cleared and without the spine bushes of last year and I could see the viper with the body turned. The tail was in the most deep place (close to me) and the head was close to the burrow entrance, probably waiting if the predator try to dig in the burrow where the viper had entered, and then bite my hand /the head of a fox / or any possible attack. I had talken many times about this behavior with people so it didn´t surprise me very much but I could see perfect how the viper entered and turned the body to ambush position to attack the possible predator. These vipers really get to drive me crazy... and it´s necessary to have the head very cold when you see a viper and don´t make instintive movements to catch it if the situation have just a bit of possible danger