Endangered
Mountain viper
Montivipera albizona
Mountain viper, the central Turkish mountain viper, is a viper species endemic to the mountainous regions of central Turkey.
Appearance
The snout is rounded and covered with small, keeled scales. The nostril is located within a single nasal scale. There are 2-3 apical scales in contact with the rostral.
The maximum total length is a little less than 78 cm (31 in) (for a male), although most specimens are smaller.
Range and habitat
The type locality given is "from the regions of the Kulmac Daglari mountain range, central Turkey, close to the Anatolian diagonal". Very rocky and dry mountain slopes and fields. Mountain viper, the central Turkish mountain viper, is a viper species endemic to the mountainous regions of central Turkey.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
This species is classified as Endangered (EN) according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species with the following criteria: B1+2e, C2a (v2.3, 1994). Estimates also indicate that the populations are severely fragmented or known to exist at no more than five locations, and that a continuing decline is inferred, observed or projected, in the number of mature individuals. In addition, the total population is estimated to number less than 2,500 mature individuals with no subpopulation containing more than 250 such specimens.
Mountain viper is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Montivipera albizona, Wikidata item Q138438. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
