Spider-tailed horned viper from Iran, the most extraordinary snake in the world
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
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The Zagros mountains at the border of Iran and Iraq are the home of the Spider-tailed horned viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides). Globally, this snake features an absolutely unique attribute on the end of its tail. When the snake moves its tail it resembles a spider or some other invertebrates. Birds are attracted to this trap and instead of catching prey, they get caught by a viper. This venomous snake has a small range in a very remote and not easily accessible region. We embarked on a journey to Iran and managed to find 4 individuals! The Spider-tailed horned viper is the pinnacle of snake evolution!
probably best snake related channel on youtube. content that nobody else has ever done before. incredible
We are very grateful for such a positive comment! Thank you so much! We dedicated 10 years of our lives to get all the footage you can watch on our channel.
I agree!
Saying!!! Great stuff guys
@@MrGert1960 💚💚💚
@@rounduprodeo7893 Big thank you! 💚
Almost no comments, no music, just the sound of nature, i love it !
Yes, most our videos are like that! 😉 You should have a feeling like you are at the location with us!
I love that aspect. It really does feel like you are there
SO DO I!
This channel deserves more than a million subscribers. I loved ur great work..
Thank you so much! Please share our videos with anyone interested in snakes! This year we don’t get many views…
This snake lives in my province Ilam. Thanks for making the beautiful video.❤🙏
It is a beautiful province! Thank you for watching!
Iran is very interesting.
There's more snow than in Europe in the North / Northwest of the country and then it seems the geography changes rapidly in the South.
Would love to visit one day.
Yes, Iran has many mountains! It is a very interesting country.
You can't even SEE IT, it blends in so perfectly. Just amazing mimicry.
Exactly! We were amazed how well these snakes blend in!
As usual you all have outdone yourselves. You're the first herp team to do a full quality expose
on this unicorn species. Splendid work.
That was the plan! 🙂🥳 Thank you for watching! The team - Matej and Zuzana
Possibly the most incredible cryptic coloration and amazing scalation I have seen. Wonderful video yet again - thanks so much.
Very welcome, we are happy that we can finally present this species to the world! 🙂
I spent time hiking in the Zargos Mountains from Ahmad Awa to Qandil but never saw one of these beautiful snakes! Thank you for the great video and careful handling these wonderful creatures.
Cheers
Thank you, great that you love our video! These snakes are very difficult to find!
Excellent work guys! Congratulations! How many hours of searching did it take to find your first one? So wild! Thanks for the amazing footage.
Thanks so much! We found the first one during the second day of searching…
Wow! What an awesome snake! 🐍🐍 My favorite snake channel delivers again! Stunning videos 📸 like always!
Wow, thanks! Happy to deliver again and again! :)
Guys, you can't even imagine how much your work is inspiring me. I consider myself as a snake enthusiastic but considering how much I learn from you...Simply amazing. I hope you are very well aware that your dedicated 10 years of your lives inspire a lot of people. I just hope I can help you in anyway in the future and lessen your burden a little bit, for now I will share your video and try to contribute it as much as possible! Thanks for your time and for this amazing video!!
Thank you so much for this comment. It is so amazing to read that we are an inspiration! Our goal was always to make as many people as possible fall in love with snakes. Sharing our videos is a great help! You can also consider joining our channel as a member :) To be honest, after this trip to Iran we are at the crossroad and will have to take a break from longer trips due to financial reasons.
@@LivingZoology I just did! I'll be a king cobra supporter as soon as I graduate from the university 🤣
Please don't hesitate to ask for my help about anything! I would always try my best in order to keep these passionate work of yours. I wish you all the best🤗
@@muhammedalideniz8906 Thank you so much! We appreciate it, really 💚We wish all the best to you 🙂🙏 Good luck with your studies!
@@LivingZoology Thank you very much 😍
Wow those mountains/cliffs.. wow
We were amazed by the landscapes there!
The scaleation and cryptic nature of this species is INCREDIBLE. Thanks for the videos !
Glad you like our videos! Yes, this is a very special snake!
این مار افعی دم عنکبوتی نام دارد و فقط در کشور عزیز و پهناورم ایران هست. شاهکار تکامل هست این مار، من خودم بارها به فاصله چند متری به رفتار این موجود زیبا نگاه کردم، ایران ۳نوع مار افعی داره که هیچ جای دنیا دیده نشده، و ۱نوع کبرای سیاه کامل ولی بسیار بزرگ و کمیاب هم داره که جز ایران هیچ جا دیده نشده. قلبا تشکر میکنم از برنامه بسیاز عالیتان
Many thanks for watching our video! It was so cool to observe this species in the wild!
As usual, the quality of the video, subject and content is outstanding !
The magic of the nature is so incredibleb! Im really impress by the texture and shape of this snake , the scales on the head remind me this species of frog( i cant remember the name) , green and black :)
Thank you for your work, dedication and to share all these incredibles animals ❤️
We are very happy that you love the quality of our video! It as a lot of work in order to make this video. Not sure which frog species you mean...If you find its name, let us know! :)
@@LivingZoology The mossy frog ( Theloderma corticale) , the texture / shape pn the head look alike
@@Freakskpp Okay, we understand your point! The texture and the shape is similar 🙂
Absolutely amazing adaptation 🤯 beautiful viper definitely one of my favorites definitely one of a kind. Thank you for highlighting this species I truly enjoyed learning about them. Wish you two all the best stay safe and have fun 🙋♂️✌️
Glad you enjoyed learning about this unique species! Thank you, stay safe too! ️✌️
FINALLY! A dream (for you to, I think?), The famous urarachnoides. Probably one of the most derived snake of all. The most derived tail luring method for sure. what a difference between simple luring with a "normal appendage" such like certain colubrid or south american crotalid (young Bothrops for example what show the end of the tail differently coloured than the body) to the beginning of adaptation with the Acanthophis genera what show a special mobility (some process are shorter allow more angle than the normal 15°) and number of caudal vertebrae but still no other modification. And that: the pinacle with a real lure. What a species. The homochromy with the gypsum, the rough texture, the spots on the pattern all of that is a fantastic evolution. Thank's a lot for this moment.
Yes, finally!!! It was a long journey - 10 years of waiting. We hope that this video was just like as you were expecting it to be! :)
Almost seems like it evolved it on purpose.
Awesome video! I just learned that these snakes existed in the last year or so and to say I was blown away by them is an understatement. Fantastic snake.
Thank you so much! It is indeed a fantastic species 🐍💚
Definitely the best channel on this subject, no fluff,music or anything that distracts from what we all come to watch and enjoy. Simply awesome videos of nature at its vest.
We appreciate that a lot! Delivering the raw natural experience is our main goal :)
Holy crap! You guys did it. Certainly not an easy task to film this species.
Yes, we did it!🥳 Great feeling and happy that we decided to try it! 🙂
The camouflage of this snake is just crazy. Between the rocks you almost cant see it at all.
Wow what a cool snake it’s camouflage is amazing. When I first saw it move it reminded me of a gaboon viper
The rectilinear motion resembles the Gaboon viper, yes! Such a cool snake and we are very happy that our mission was successful.
This is how it should be.... learning about the animals in their natural environment
Yes, we agree!!! Spending time with wild snakes and observing them, that is the best thing in the world!
Kudos to the living zoology team for filming such a rare species and making it an amazing documentary. Brilliant work. 👍✌👏👏👏
Edit: and the camouflage of the snake is mind blowing. 😯
So nice of you, thank you very much!!! We waited for 10 years to do this trip!
Fascinating once again. The fact that snakes use the tip of their tail to attract potential prey is something I've only known from the Australian death adder, which thereby probably imitates a worm. However, this structure is much more elaborate. Glad to be a supporter of this channel. 🙂
Isn't it crazy how evolution not only gave this snake perfect camouflage for it's environment, but also a lure that perfectly matches the abdomen of local spiders.
Yes, this structure is unbelievably elaborate! We even saw that it really works well! If we were a bit more lucky we could film the hunt!
What is more crazy is that this structure did not evolve in any snake anywhere on the planet!
As I say above we have adaptation on Acanthophis, the number of caudals is elevated and some vertebrae process are shorter and than allow more mobility of the tail for wiggling like a worm. See a skeleton of Acanthophis and you will see. Cheers.
Great explanation
Thank you very much!!!
I've never seen such gnarly scalation. I can't get over it. Insane. Kudos to you guys, another god tier herp nature film. I looove you. This viper is the single most bizarre there is.
Thank you very much! Sooo nice to read such a positive comment 🙂 We waited for 10 years until we got the chance to film this species and it was trully as magnificent and bizzare as we thought it will be!
The last movement is how a gaboon vibes gets around
Yes, Gaboon vipers also use the rectilinear locomotion 🙂
You two do so much for your scientific passion, even to wearing the head scarf in such a desolate and war-torn part of our world. Thank you!
Yes, we do all we can to find and film the most amazing snakes in the world! :)
I live in Colorado and catch rattlesnakes in my yard.
Ok, thanks for the information.
Beautiful snake
Yes, it certainly is! And so well camouflaged!
Romans 1:19-20
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
The tail looks more like a centipede to me.
If it was longer and had more “legs” it could resemble a centipede.
Great result from an awesome expedition! I was amazed when I read the first description of this species.
We are happy with the results! 🙂 Thank you for watching!
I have no interest in snakes, I just saw this one on fb, now I know what I know about it from this channel, I still want to know the effect of of its venom unto human
Thanks to all of you ❤
Thank you very much for watching!
Beautiful snake, with such a unique adaption!
And a very loud hiss - I would definitely have respect hearing that, haha.
It is a unique snake for sure! We treated it with a lot of respect!
incredible & criptic snake in incredible environnement with incredible people ;-)
So cool that everything is incredible in this video according to you! :) Thank you very much!
Wow! What a beautiful snake 🐍😍
Right? So beautiful and also having amazing morphology and behavior!
Yes ❤ now I got 😂 thanks to keep my words
Tomorrow the video will have a premiere! :)
Thank you for coming to my country... there are many snakes in Iran, some snakes like Zanjani viper (endemic species) or black snake and Caspian cobra..... they are beautiful and at the same time poisonous. 🙏🙏👍👍
We really enjoyed our stay in Iran! Unfortunately, we did not find many snakes due to bad weather conditions and difficult access to good locations. We hope to come back in the future…
Horned vipers 🐍⛎⚕️ are so super intelligent 🧠🤓 as well ❤😂🎉😅😊! 7/13/24! 1:27pm! 10:16
Thanks for watching 🙂🙂🙂
Best snake channel! Keep up the great work 👍. Never heard of this unique snake. So cool, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching! So cool that according to you we have the best snake channel! :)
Content is incredible, but if your not gonna commentate & make us read, please don't torture us with the dam crickets!!! I'm still gonna watch tho lol!!
Thanks for watching! Unfortunately, the only sound we could record in that habitat was made by crickets! Few birds from time to time, but otherwise a very silent environment.
An excellent film.
The only bird song I recognized was at the beginning, which was a Corn Bunting.
Thank you very much! There were also Crested larks and some wheatears.
Wow! What a great snake show! They must be nearly deadly to Humans, I would reckon.
Thank you for watching! Well, there is no record of a bite and not many info about the venom toxicity...
I’m curious if the first two snakes you found may have been a pair? Perhaps the male was searching for the female to make some babies?
Yes, it was a male and female! The breeding season was approaching so we thought that that was the reason why they were so close to each other 🙂
اینجا ایلام است و تنها زیستگاه افعی دم عنکبوتی رشته کوه کبیرکوه و دینارکوه و خانه ما همین جاست دریاچه دو قلو سیاه گاو آبدانان
Yes, we filmed this footage in Zagros mountains in Ilam province.
Hey I’ve been there! I almost got bit in the face by a blunt nosed viper when I was there. Missed me by a hair. Iraq has very very little to no anti venom anywhere in country either.
Great to hear that you were lucky!
Please leave them alone......please
I love your channel sir/madam greetings from india karanataka very much awesome footage i request you and your tean can make monocled cobra video
Thank you very much, greetings from the Czech Republic! We hope to make a video about the Monocled cobra in the future 🙂
Wow this is new to me! this snake is incredible.... it's quite invisible on the rocks!
the pupil of the eye is very thin, and the eye seem to be a part of the body! very interesting one!
Thank you for watching! Great that you found out that this snake exists thanks to our video! 🙂 Yes, the camouflage is absolutely amazing!
I watched the documentary of the original footage, it took them ages to get a shot of them eating, things kept going wrong like the weather and camera batteries dying.
We almost saw the hunt during our 3 days of searching for this snake!
Would love your thoughts on how the Iranian people greeted or treated you. Wish relations were better for secure travel there I really want to visit
People in Iran were very friendly in general 🙂
I also live in CO and have lived around the Prairie rattlesnake on the for 60+ years. This is a spectacular snake. However, I still cringe seeing footage sometimes. I hate spiders and ewww. The tail reminds me of the butt of a wood louse spider. (edit) the nice thing, this would not be a likely place to hunt, collect or just kill this snake like I ofter have seen throughout my many years of loving snakes.
Wow, never heard of anyone who would be scared of the tail of this snake! Hopefully after watching our video you got more relaxed! :)
@@LivingZoology oh, I'm not afraid of the snake....I LOVE snakes and got in trouble as a child for bringing them home to be pets as young as 4-5 years old. Garters and hogs were my favorites. I'm sure my dad was worried about a rattlesnake run-in. It is the spider tail. I will not flinch at a large rattlesnake but freak if a little spider gets near me. I absolutely hate spiders. I do think this snake is amazing. The tail us a fantastic adaptation of survival.
I wish I had one for a pet
من ۱۵سال پیش این مار را گرفتم نزدیک خونمون کنار رودخانه
Nice, thanks for watching 🙂
What an incredible snake, I can only imagine the excitement finding them. Epic video. 🔥
Thank you so much!!! This snake is truly incredible, the pinnacle of snake evolution.
You are the best snake lover couple and your passion take you to all part of world God bless you both
Thank you so much for your kind words! All the best to you! 💚
Maybe there are populations on Iraqian side of the border or even elsewhere, too.
There should be some small populations in Iraq.
Maintain this format! Good presentation, no junk music, clear digits, any info on this new specie,s venom?
We only know a little about the other Pseudocerastes (persicus) and the effects are haemotoxic (powerful aemorrhagin) and Cytotoxic. From a short video we see the bird bleeding immediatley after the bite, than we may suppose potent haemorrhagic effect. Cheers
We surely will! :) Many of our videos are very similar. The venom is hemotoxic and cytotoxic, the LD50 is not known according to our information.
Have there been any genetics or studys comparing them to rattlesnakes? Maybe convergent evolution or relative's, could the tail be like a modified rattle or is it soft?
Crotalus are distantly related to the Pseudocerastes. The two are viperidae. Indeed the american crotalid is a crotalinae here we are in viperinae, the "true" vipers if you want. This is not a convergent evolution because the crepitaculum is more sclerified and it is a noise emitter. Here you clearly see that these structure are lesser sclerified and the selection was for it, because if it is a little more flexible it ressemble more to arachnid or centipede legs. Cheers.
This is not an example of convergent evolution. The function of the tail of rattlesnakes is different, same as the structures on the tail are different. Segments of the rattle are more hard than regular scales. One new segment grows after each shedding. The Spider-tailed horned viper has modified scales on its tail. These scales have different shapes than normal scales but are similarly soft.
Could they have edited the cricket chirping out?
What’s wrong with cricket sounds? Those were the only sounds we could record at the location except the wind.
Very good informative and concise.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Here in Brazil there is the canine ( caninana)snake, it is a snake that has no venom.
Not sure which snake you have in mind! What is its Latin name?
One of the most unique snake species in the world and probably the first dedicated film about it. Amazing work that you are doing and amazing species. Iran feels quite similar to Greece. The birds and the crickets are the same.
Thank you very much, we are so happy that we could finally show this species in our video! It was very interesting to see that most birds for example were the same species we have in Europe :)
Instagram brought me here.
Great, welcome! 🙂
Wow
My dream snake.
It is a spectacular snake!
Çok iyi ❤
Thank you!
Absolutely incredible footage! Very astonishing viper and beautiful habitat. Well done you two, congratulations!!!
Thank you very much! We are so happy that this mission went well!
Witam .Będą kiedyś filmy nagrywane w jakości 1440p60?
Hello, we record all our footage in 4k 50fps and present it in FullHD 25fps.
Wow great video!❤last part snake sound scary.but my only concern is video is feels like slow and lengthy.if it in
Thank you! Our videos are peaceful and we take time to explain many things about snakes 🙂
👏👏
Thanks!
fantastic work
Many thanks!
Big efforts 😊
Thanks!
Very interesting.
Glad you think so!
Stunning video, but I had to remove the audio. That repetitive, never ending cricket chirping was unbearable after a while
Thanks for watching. This was the sound of the location in the late afternoon. Pity that someone cannot listen to sounds of nature for 10 minutes :) It is not even a repetitive recording of 2 minutes over and over again, but 5 and 5 minutes of genuine soundscape.
@@LivingZoology An added local soundscape to tie a nature video together is usually nice, but, just as you do for the video part, please consider also editing the audio in a way to avoid this kind of repetition; the later part of the video, without any sounds edited in, was for me much more pleasant to watch. Just a friendly advice.
@@macsen5422 Again, this is not a repetition. It is a sound recorded in nature. Two recordings, both about 5 minutes long. It is a semi-desert area so the only sound you get there are some crickets in the afternoon.
@@LivingZoology Great content as always, but I do agree with the poster above. It sounds like there is an additional cricket track layered on to the natural environment ambience (done in post audio). It sounds dry and in your face, not how natural environments generally sound (unless you are purposely filming crickets). If thats the case, tuck it down more with a little reverb and roll off the high frequencies. I do post game audio for a living and build such environments all the time. Just a suggestion to make it less fatiguing. Again though, your content is great and i appreciate the hardwork.
@@LivingZoology I never said that it was a repetition/loop, but that (even if it's two continuous 5 minute recordings) it is quite repetitive - there's a difference in meaning of those two word, and I feel that more variety (or even a less marked ambience) in the audio editing would have helped. But it's your video, so if you're happy with it, I'm happy for you
I wonder what God was thinking when he created this thing.
Thanks for watching, you have a lot to think about 🙂
Its showing
How the temptation works
The snaketailed spider is like devil and his tail his offering
The bird is like human.
Fascinating!!!
Thank you very much!
Truly fascinating !
Thank you for sharing the images of this atypical snake.
Greetings from France
Many thanks! We think that this snake is fascinating, great that you think so too!
Wonderful. I don't think I would have believed this snake existed had you not filmed it. Thank you
Awesome! It is always cool to hear that someone learned about a certain species thanks to our video!
It "randomly" evolved that tail? And the perfect way to use it as bait?
Evolution of such traits takes millions of years...and yes, often there is some random mutation at the beginning. That's why it did not evolve in all vipers around the world. There are vipers which use caudal luring but no other species on Earth has this spectacular structure on its tail.
@@LivingZoology So there might have been a point in this vipers evolution where it had no idea what to do with the bait on its tail? It was just there hanging...so it's two evolutions.
1. The bait evolved randomly
2. The awareness of how to use the bait evolved after.
That's crazy! A random mutation and then the ability to use it properly.
@@arielperez797 Yes! The common ancestor of this species and related species did not have such tail. Check Pseudocerastes persicus, the closest related species - it has a normal tail! Most probably the mutation occured, the individual with it was more successful in hunting, passed genes into another generation, slowly the tail became more specialized and snakes used it more and after a looong time…we have a population of snake species having a tail which looks like spider!
@@LivingZoology thank you for sharing your knowledge! Subscribed!
Amazing video. One of your best. Is it unusual for a species to switch up on these three types of locomotion?
Thank you very much! It is very unusual for any snake species to frequently switch between 3 types of locomotion.
Not only have I not seen one of these vipers,I have not even heard of them. Fantastic video. For some reason I think these vipers may be quite venomous but I may be wrong.
Awesome that you learned about this species from our video! Their venom was not properly studied yet, at least in terms of the toxicity. But from some info we have it seems that the toxicity is not particularly high.
Outstanding channel! No other channel can compete...thank you for your hard work to bring this content to us! Does anyone in the states have one of these snakes?
Thank you very much! We work really hard to bring the best snake content from the wild possible! 🙂 We don’t know if someone has this species in the USA, but there are some in Europe.
This is so cool
Many many thanks!
Super asp!
Yes, it is! Thanks for watching!
Thanks!
Many thanks to you!!! ❤
Wow!
It was wow!!!
Such great camouflage!❤
Yes, absolutely amazing!
great photography and fabulous snake, thanks
Many thanks! Great that you love this video 🙂
any luck finding other reptile in the area ? or its the only endemic species ?
We found some more snakes, but not many. There are other endemic species in Iran, also very difficult to find.
Naprosto úžasný.
Moc děkujeme!
Amazing. Good job. Congrats!
Thank you! Cheers!
Sorry sir ,, actually that was my fault .. I didn’t mentioned photographer name 😢 in field herpetology.. actually I learnt a lot from you all .. but never told photo captured by me .. next time will not happened ❤
Thanks for letting us know. It would be nice if you share at least the link to our video.
Ok.. Sir 🙏 actually i forgot to mention your name.. Because basically i never did that.. I always mention the photographer's name❤️..
@@naturerealoaded Looking forward to being mentioned next time.
the tail reminds me of a centipede instead of a spider
Centipedes are longer! But it does not matter, once the bird is interested in this "invertebrate", the viper won :)
Love the pastoral intro ...and everything else of course. What an adventure that must have been. Like back to the dawn of civilization. We see caudal luring in Vipers and Elapids, but are you aware of any non-venomous species which use it?
It was so special and peaceful to sit there in the mountains with shepherds at the border of Iran and Iraq! Great that you love the footage :) Caudal luring was documented for example in Green tree pythons, Grey rat snakes, and some boas as far as we know.
@@LivingZoology Wow, I hadn't a clue about those nonvenomous species doing so. To follow up on my prior comment about GTP, Emerald Tree Boa convergence; I wonder then if ETBs also do it. Might be a hard thing to document though, aside from perhaps in captivity.
@@bradsillasen1972 We don’t think it was documented in ETB, but who knows…maybe they do it too!
Thank you sooo much for this! ♥️
You're so welcome! After 10 years of filming snakes we were finally lucky to find this unique species!
Great video as always
Thank you very much!