With the arrival of September, a busy period came to an end at the Center since the first member of this year’s Hungarian meadow viper offspring was born at the end of July followed by hundreds of snakes in August.
This year 132 males and 149 females were born from 22 mothers, makes a total of 281 baby vipers in 2021. Together with this year’s newborns, the Center’s captive population is increased to 3,834 individuals. The average litter size was 13, but this year’s record holder was an 8-year-old female brings 24 snakes into the world.
According to the practice used for decades, the length and weight of every single newborn vipers were recorded right after being born. Besides several photos were taken of them for future identification.
Vipers were born with an average length of 14.5 centimeters and a weight of 2.7 grams. In the case of observed and recorded matings, the mean of the gestation period was 114 days.
Next measurement of the snakes is expected in early October, before the start of wintering.
