When hiking in the mountains may happen to come across in snakes. In Italy living representatives of two families: the colubridi and viperidi.
The former are totally harmless, the latter represented by four species - Vipera aspis, V. Ursino, V. berus, V. clean-cut - are poisonous.
The popular imagination has probably exaggerated the risks stemming from the Italian viper, which is rarely fatal: the possibility of being bitten is in fact quite remote, especially if you take care of rules such as wearing high boots and socks, be careful when collecting mushrooms or herbs, use a stick to remove branches and leaves.
The area the species ranges from the Pyrenees to Germany. It is the most common Italian viperide. It is present throughout the national territory, except for Sardinia. The Vipera aspis
live in a cool, sunny, preferring areas of poor vegetation, meadows, pastures and stony
especially endangered as it is precisely the snake man. As is clear from a study by Italian researchers, British, French, Nigerians eaustraliani, published in the journal of the Royal Society of London, out of 17 monitored populations of the 80 snakes, 11, declined between 1997 and 2000.
Orsini Viper The Viper is the smallest and can be found in much of central Asia and Europe. In Italy is present in some areas of the central but it is especially rare because adulteration of its natural habitat by man and this is considered a protected species in several international conventions including CITES. The name comes from the naturalist Ascoli Antonio Orsini (1788-1870) who first described it.
The Orsini Viper lives exclusively to high altitude grasslands and leads a solitary life except during the breeding season when it is seen in pairs or in groups of males in the act of fighting to win the female.
venomous apparatus is equipped with a functional, but very weak, even for the small size of the fangs, bites and rarely has a very gentle character: its possible bite does not usually damage rilevanti. Vive dai 7 ai 10 anni.
Tra queste, la vipera dell'Orsini (V. ursinii), una timida e piccola vipera, lunga 40-50 cm, poco velenosa, che vive nelle praterie erbose di altitudine tra 1.400 e 2.400 m s.l.m., dove sono presenti i pulvini di ginepro prostrato (Juniperus communis nana), quali alcuni massicci montuosi dell'Italia centrale come il Gran Sasso d'Italia, il Monte Velino, il Monte Marsicano.
"Questa specie è in estinzione a livello globale - poche popolazioni si trovano in Francia, Balcani e Ungheria - tanto da essere catalogata come specie ‘minacciata' dall'Uicn (Unione internazionale conservazione della natura)", spiega Giovanni Amori dell'Istituto for the study of ecosystems (ISE) of the National Research Council, one of the authors of the study. "The reduction of the population of this mountain viper could be closely linked to the decrease in the density of rodents on which it feeds, including in Italy, the snow vole (Chionomys nivalis).
The Vipera berus, also known as the adder, is a viperide very common in northern Italy. Its bite can be very painful, but is not considered dangerous to humans, while requiring immediate relief, rarely fatal configure. At risk are mainly those exposed to allergic reactions, emotional ones, the elderly and patients suffering from patologie croniche, nonché i bambini.
È presente nelle regioni dell'Italia settentrionale, a nord del fiume Po, che oltrepassa solo nella zona di Ferrara e in alcune zone dell'appennino nord-occidentale, è altresì presente anche nelle regioni dell'Italia centrale.
Questa specie è inclusa tra le specie protette (Appendice III) nella convenzione di Berna.
"Il declino dei roditori su vasta scala, e quindi anche in montagna", aggiunge il ricercatore, "sembra essere collegato agli eventi di El
Niño/La Niña del 1997-1998. Questi fenomeni meteorologici - i più intensi finora registrati - producono variazioni climatiche repentine e violente di segno opposto: periodi molto piovosi per il Niño seguiti da fasi molto aride per gli effetti della Niña e viceversa.
Queste oscillazioni hanno effetti nefasti sui roditori, particolarmente sensibili a variazioni humidity and aridity, and indirectly on their predators, the snakes. "
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