by Westley Price » Thu Jan 19, 2012 11:06 am
Does a hybrid between a puff adder and a night adder exist? Is it even possible?
A Night Adder (Causus rhombeatus) and a Puff Adder (Bitis arietans) are two different genera, thus hybrids in the wild would be VERY rare, and it has not been recorded in captivity or the wild.
Also the infamous "death adder" - has anyone ever come across one and does anyone try to breed them?
Death Adders (also not Bitis which is the typical African Adders) are bred in SA, but are quite rare.
As with the puff and night adders, would it be possible to cross breed a death adder with one?
Impossible to tell
Guys breeding Death Adders wouldn't even toy with the idea of hybridizing it with any other snakes for two reasons:
Death adders are rare and expensive, so why mess with it, and secondly and most importantly, it is VERY irresponsible to hybridize venomous snakes. If you get bitten, you will be injected with a totally unknown venom cocktail and doctors would only be able to treat you symptomatically or take a wild guess at which antivenom to use, which will probably kill you anyway.
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