Mangshan Pit Viper (Protobothrops mangshanensis) Fact Sheet: Behavior & Ecology

• Largely inactive

• Territory/range size unknown
• Regularly encountered by locals in its habitat

Displays

•  Open mouth "gaping" when agitated (Boyer 2010)

Vocalizations

•  Snakes do not vocalize but they do hiss. (Ernst & Zug 1996)

Aggression

• Shy, calm
• Females known to aggressively nest guard their eggs. (Boyer 2010)
• Male/male combat known during mating season for some species of pit vipers: (Duvall et al 1992)
  • Seen in North American prairie rattlesnake

• Unknown

• Few predators pose a threat
• Hunted for meat by humans (Boyer 2010)

• Travel with rectilinear locomotion 
  • Used by heavy bodied snake species such as pythons, boas, and heavy vipers
  • Muscles on ribs attach to skin; elastic skin lifts snake's body forward in waves similar to an earthworm's crawl (Bogert 1947) (Lissmann 1950)
  • Useful when stealthily pursuing prey, crawling into tight spaces; motion is hard to detect
  • New advances in mobile robotics have used this style of locomotion for inspiration (Ghanbari 2008)
• Also crawl with lateral undulation
  • Muscles activate in sequence from head to tail
  • Most common locomotion style for snakes
• Can crawl into trees

The Mangshan pit viper is a shy, forest-dwelling snake. Little is known about its behavior.

Image credit: © San Diego Zoo Global. All rights reserved. Note: This is a cropped image.

Bogert (1947)
Boyer (2010)
Duvall et al. (1992)
Ernst & Zug (1996)
Lissmann (1950)