| 1 | Nose-horned viper |
Location: southeast Europe. Italy and Austria westernmost points.
Widely considered to be the most dangerous snake in Europe. The statistics bear it out, as horned viper venom has an LD50 rating of 0.48mg, defeating the death adder, king cobra, and timber rattlesnake. European horned vipers are a medium snake at 50-70cm, named for a fleshy horn above its snout.
From above they look grey, with a yellow and brown belly, and they mainly inhabit rocky regions. Their bite can unleash symptoms like vomiting, fever, nausea, and dizziness. In Greece, they’re the species responsible for the most snakebite hospitalisations per year.
European horned vipers can kill not just children, but fully grown men. 2 deaths were recorded in the 1990s, both soldiers at Velebit Mountain near Zadar in south Croatia. The first was bitten on the neck while dozing in a sleeping bag, while the second was bitten under the arm while relaxing against a tree at noon. European horned vipers have 13mm fangs, and the venom contains multiple toxin classes, including neurotoxins, hemotoxins and anticoagulants. The saving grace, the only thing that keeps Greek civilisation up and running, is that vipera ammodytes is lethargic and non-aggressive, only biting when pushed.
| 2 | European catsnake |
Location: southeast Europe to Israel, westernmost point Italy.
A common reptile-eating snake, about 60cm long. The European catsnake likes rocky areas, dry sunny slopes and open oak forests, and also railways. On a fearful note for passengers, this snake is part of a growing club: serpents mistakenly believed to be venomless.
The European catsnake avoided detection because instead of having instant front fang injection, it secretes a much weaker venom from its rear fangs. These fangs are lined with furrows so that when the snake chews its prey, the venom runs into the bite wound like a miniature fountain. It’s slow and cumbersome, but enough to subdue the geckos and lizards it eats, one of which is Erhard’s wall lizard.
The Euopean catsnake has barely any chance of hurting a human, but could do harm if left to chew for several minutes. European catsnakes try to bite when picked up, often attempting to swallow your finger. A cocky youth could believe the snake to be harmless and leave it attached out of pure bravado, as it continues to bite, before unexpectedly swaying over. It’s best not to be the first person to find out.
| 3 | Adder |
Location: most of Europe, except far south.
Famous as the British Isle’s only venomous snake, but the adder (vipera berus) occupies a massive range. The only European countries it skips are Spain and Portugal, and it has powerful colonies in Scandinavia. The adder has the highest LD50 toxicity rating in Europe, at 0.11mg. It’s fully capable of dealing out death. The last fatal case in Britain was in 1975, but a Yorkshire man was left extremely injured after a bite in 2014.
Norway has 200-500 adder bites per year, and every ten years one will prove fatal. Certain UK forests have signs outside warning of the writhing adders within – the UK stats are 100 bites per year. The standard symptoms are tingling and swelling, but the entire arm can swell up, and this can spread to the trunk. Luckily, adders are not particularly aggressive.
Many bites happen after walkers step on them. One happened in 2016, when 13 year old Macey Roberts was running along the sand dunes of Pwllheli beach in Wales. He felt a sharp pain in his foot and thought he’d been stung by a needle, but his sister investigated and found a resting adder. Soon he was “virtually unconscious” as they dragged him to a nearby golf club for assistance.
| 4 | Meadow viper |
Location: France, Italy, eastern Europe.
Anyone bitten by this snake would be incredibly unlucky, as it’s now one of Europe’s most endangered snakes. The meadow viper (vipera ursinii) is Europe’s smallest viper, averaging at 0.3 metres in length, pushing 0.48m for massive anomalies. It exists only in small pockets of undisturbed countryside, fragmented and growing smaller.
The meadow viper has a venom which shouldn’t be underestimated. On the con side, its venom yield is just 1-4mg, but its LD50 potency rating is a respectable 2.17mg. A study on 64 bites found that 45 successfully injected venom, and most symptoms were mild, like swelling and numbness. But 13% of victims suffered from massive limb edema (swelling), and 6% suffered from surface skin-level necrosis. Recovery time varied from 12 hours to 2 weeks.
That said, there are no confirmed deaths on record for this species. Views differ on the meadow viper’s temperament. Some say it’s twitchy and erratic and will randomly bite, while others say it’s calm and docile and only strikes when pressured.
| 5 | Dice snake |
Location: central and eastern Europe, Germany and Switzerland eastwards. Extremely common.
The water-loving dice snake uses the same strategies as the catsnake: a rear fanger which chews in a weak venom manually. Consequently, there are no human deaths on record, but you’d be advised not to let it chew your finger out of pure generosity while you have a riverside picnic.
The LD50 score in mice is 25mg (although the dice snake mostly preys on fish), and the venom is mostly neurotoxic. It possesses such ingredients as arginine esterase, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase. There’s also proteases, protein-digesting enzymes which we all produce in our stomachs. These are designed to dissolve a bigger opening for the other toxins. The venom is produced by a Duvorney’s gland, which is only found in rear-fanged species.
Dice snakes have the claim of being extremely common. In certain lakes they can swell to thousand upon thousands. The River Danube is one of their hotspots, flowing through Austria, Hungary and Serbia. This is a powerful swimmer, and its venom comes in use when it seizes fish with its jaws, hoping to subdue the prey so it can begin the tricky rearranging process before swallowing.
| 6 | Baskian viper |
Location: Spain, Portugal, France.
A less famous viper of Europe, living in the northern quarter of Spain, extreme northern Portugal, and extreme southwest France. The Baskian viper is fully equipped with front fang venom, which it injects in a blink and you’ll miss it strike. The severity varies by region. There’s two subspecies, including one in the Calabrian mountains of Spain’s northwest, which has a more severe LD50 rating of 6.9-9.9mg. In the rest of the range, the LD50 score is 23.1-23.6mg.
Either way, it’s much gentler than the adder. France and Spain are essentially divided into three viper regions, the Lataste’s viper lower down, the asp viper further north, and the Baskian viper in an enclave inbetween (with slight overlaps), and they’re probably thanking their lucky stars that they’ve got the least severe of the three. The precise toxins in the venom are barely researched, just the deadliness. This species has no confirmed deaths.
Baskian vipers reach a maximum of 75cm in length, and its adults mostly eat mammals. Its noticeably different to the Lataste’s viper. The latter has a big, blotchy black zigzag like a child using a paintbrush, while vipera seoanei has more ordered and intricate patterns.
| 7 | Montpellier snake |
Location: France, Spain, Portugal, North Africa.
Spain’s longest snake, pushing to 2.4 meters in the largest, oldest ones. The Montpellier snake is a rear-fanged species, but not to be underestimated. Its venom, chewed in manually, can kill a small mammal in less than 3 minutes. In mice, the venom works via severe lung haemorrhages. It causes leakages of blood into the pulmonary alveoli, millions of tiny spaces in the lungs where oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide.
As for humans, most bites are dry as they only use the front fangs. But if venom does make contact it can be serious, with neurological symptoms. A French teenager once decided to poke his finger deep into a Montpellier snake’s mouth for fun. Weeks later, he was the subject of a scientific study, having experienced drooping eyelids and oculomotor paralysis (haywire eye muscles). It took 6 days for him to recover.
There are rumours of a Libyan who died from this snake sometime before 1987, although no confirmed deaths have happened in Europe. The Montpellier snake is also an extremely fast, active snake, which can raise its upper body and hiss loudly, or disappear extremely rapidly over a stone wall. They’re not fussy about their habitats and pop up anywhere.
| 8 | Asp viper |
Location: Italy, Switzerland, the lower 80% of France.
This is France’s signature viper, a countryside dweller which particularly loves hedges and meadows, and is becoming endangered. Most old French people who generically think “viper” are thinking of this species, although the adder rules the northern 20% of the country.
On paper, the asp viper has a significantly gentler bite. The LD50 score is only 1mg versus 0.11mg for the adder, and the venom yield is 9-10mg versus 10-18mg. Yet the asp viper seems to cause more deaths, averaging at 1 per year in its French heartland. This 60-65cm snake produces a rich elixir of snake danger, with some weird effects, including temporary blindness caused by the venom bombarding eye cells. Scientists have much to learn, but the venom seems to be more neurotoxic than the adder. Asp vipers can cause drooping eyelids, vertigo, difficulty swallowing, and drowsiness. These brain signal problems usually kick in at 4-12 hours.
Despite its habitat retreating in the face of modernised mechanised agriculture, the asp viper bites and evenomates several hundred Frenchmen per year.
| 9 | False smooth snake |
Location: Spain, Portugal.
A slow and patient snake, but a smart snake. This 40-60cm serpent is semi-underground dwelling. It lives in animal burrows, and moves as little as 5 meters per day. While the Montpellier snake zooms around Spain getting picked off by short-toed eagles, the false smooth snake smiles and pulls its head back into its dark holes.
Its venom is similarly patient. This is a rear-fanged snake which forcibly chews the venom into its prey, 50% of which is the blue-coloured Iberian slow worm. The venom is weak enough that a false smooth snake can take 70 minutes, to catch, subdue and swallow a reptile. There’s no rush in its cosy soil lairs; the false smooth can take its time. But there’s a slight chance of danger from this venomous snake, as they’re more bitey than the dice snake, for instance. Despite being slow and gentle, false smooth snakes can flip when picked up.
Bites have never killed, but can cause throbbing and redness for several hours afterwards. Again, their rear fangs are grooved, to allow the mini venom stream to flow into an open wound.
| 10 | Lataste’s viper |
Location: Spain, Portugal. Likes rocky slopes with shrubs.
This is Spain and Portugal’s main viper, occupying all but the top portion of Spain (Baskian viper country). It measures 30-60cm, and has vertical pupils which tell you it means business. Lataste’s viper has proper front fang venom. It’s more studied than some European vipers, and has two main toxin classes. The first is phospholipase A2, a cytotoxic family, which attacks cells and can cause blackening necrosis spreading all the way up the arm. The second is snake venom serine proteinases (SVSP), responsible for blood clotting chaos (either pro or anti).
Officially, Lataste’s viper venom is much weaker than the adder or asp viper, scoring 7-20mg on the LD50 scale, but Spanish villagers have suffered rotting skin and agony after absentmindedly bending over to pick up garden items. Others escape with minor throbbing and redness, but it’s a game of chance.
A unique feature is that Lataste’s vipers have fragile fangs which often break off in the victim’s arm. As they age, their venom composition changes, Youths have far more matrix metalloproteinases, which cleave amino acids and break down proteins in the skin en masse.