Vipera seoanei ssp.cantabrica (Seoane's Viper)
Somiedo Parque Natural, Asturias
It's a terrible photo, but the only one I managed to get of this juvenile viper before it fled across the marshy mountain slope! Despite my best efforts to hold it up, it wasn't keen on posing for a better portrait!
Seoane's Viper is a narrowly-endemic species, very similar to the Common Adder (V.berus), and used to be regarded as a suspecies of it. It differs in the scalation on the head, among other features, but the ranges of the two species do not overlap.
V.seoanei is found in mountains areas of south-west France, northern Spain and Portugal.
Seoane's Viper is a narrowly-endemic species, very similar to the Common Adder (V.berus), and used to be regarded as a suspecies of it. It differs in the scalation on the head, among other features, but the ranges of the two species do not overlap.
V.seoanei is found in mountains areas of south-west France, northern Spain and Portugal.