Natural History
Little is known about life span of Darevsky's viper and onthogenetic development. As all other snakes Darevsky's Viper is a predator. It forages on lizards, small rodents and orthopterans. Due to the potent venom, the digestion process is very fast. Digestion of fuzzy rats in vipers kept at 4-7 C lasted only 3 days. A speculation exists that these snakes need a lot of food. This ovoviviparous snake mates in May, after the first spring shed. Female feeds intensively all warm season and give birth to 4-8 babies in September to Early October. Newborn babies are just 15–18 cm long, and weight of about 0.5 g. First two weeks babies consume the residual of nutritions from the yolk. They grow without eating and get ready fot the first shed which takes place within 10–14 days.It is unknown, whether baby vipers forage before their first hybernation or not. Genrally baby Daresky's Vipers feed on newborn rock lizards (Darevskia valentini) and small respresentatives of orthoptera.
Read more about this topic: Vipera Darevskii
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