Interesting Facts About the Fascinating Malabar Pit Viper

Malabar pit viper (Trimeresurus malabaricus) is a moderate venomous pit viper only endemic to Western Ghats mountains in India. 

Facts About Malabar Pit Viper

1. This species lives in the montane forests. It prefers elevation from 600 to 2000 meters above the sea level. Malabar pit viper is usually found on ground rocks, so it is also known as rock pit viper. Tribes living near Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala call it "Pacha mlakodan" in malayalam. It is also found on trees near streams in the dense jungle of southwest India. 

2. Malabar pit viper is famous as a master of camouflage. Many different color morphs are known to exist. 

3. The pits of malabar pit viper on either side of the head helps to detect the heat (infra red rays) emitted by the body of the prey. It works like a thermal range finder to help it hunt warm-blooded creatures. 

4. Malabar pit viper feed on rodents, tree frogs, geckos and musk shrews. 

5. It use its fang and potent venom will causes severe destruction of limbs. 

6. It is notorious for being very aggressive and strikey which is not true. It is relatively calm unless you really provoked them. 

7. A lot of the accidents do happen with the species is because of people treading on them. This pit viper is nocturnal. They like to sit on the path in ambush and if some people without shoes or flip-flops are walking on the path at night without light, usually the snake won't move out of the way in time and people end up stepping on it which of course will result in a bite. 

8. Venomous snakes can choose whether they inject venom in a bite or not, so can malabar pit viper. A lot of times when this pit viper bites they actually give you a dry bite (not inject venom) because the venom is very precious to them and  it takes a lot of energy to produce. So if you are not their prey, they would rather not waste their venom and just give a warning defense bite without any venom.