Common Death Adder
Common Death Adder
Click a thumbnail to see a slideshow
| COMMON NAME: | Common Death Adder |
| LATIN NAME: | Acanthophis antarticus |
| FOOD: | Mainly small birds, mammals and lizard |
| HABITAT: | Wet and dry eucalypt forests, woodlands and coastal heaths. |
| LOCALITY: | Eastern Australia (excluding far north and south) and southern SA and WA. |
| LENGTH: | Up to 1 metre. |
| BEHAVIOUR: |
Common Death Adders attract prey close to them by twitching their tail. They then strike with their mouth and inject venom into their prey from their fangs. They swallow their prey whole. |
| DEVELOPMENT: |
These snakes are live bearing, having up to twenty offspring at a time during late summer to autumn. The gestation period can be form six to nine months and most but not all females produce young every second year. |
| DESCRIPTION: |
A thick-set, narrow-tailed, brown snake, to 1 m long. Upper surface of the adder is a series of dark and light grey-brown bands and the head is large and triangular, wider than the neck, and distinctly concave behind the eyes. Tail is short and constricted sharply to a very narrow tip |
