homeschool science lesson: viper snake
Last night we watched “In Search of the King Cobra” hosted by herpetologist Austin Stevens and Max loved it.
During the program, while in India in search of the Cobra, Austin caught a Russell’s Viper and showed the audience how the fangs worked by having it bite through plastic on a cup and “milking” it for venom.
Max thought that was so incredibly cool, I told him today we would study the Viper and then have a fun project.




Russell’s Viper
What We Learned:
-A scientist who studies snakes is called a herpetologist.
-Russell’s Viper is one of the most dangerous snakes in all of Asia because of it’s lethal venom.
-Also called a “rat snake” (it’s favorite snack)
-It preys mainly on rodents and other small animals
-Is a member of the Viperidae family of snakes
-Aggressive and threatened easily
-Coils up, hisses and strikes out very quickly
-Normally two to five and a half feet in length, with triangular shaped heads and large fangs. The markings on their heads include three triangular shaped spots along with dark lines that stretch from the eyes to the corners of the mouth
-Can be found in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Asia and Taiwan. It prefers to live in grassy areas and fields, as well as savannahs, scrubby areas and sometimes rainforests. It also lives in hedges, bushes and along fences near human settlements, where they are hard to see.
Project: “Milking A Snake”
We took a glass and put a little bit of orange juice inside (it looks just like the venom we saw on the TV show) and put rubber banded plastic wrap on the top. Then Max stuck two pieces of toothpicks in the plastic for the “fangs”. For the scene to be complete, Max played herpetologist and held his rubber snake to the toothpicks.
After I got my picture, he proceeded to drink the venom.




































































































