Angelenos now have the chance to see eight rare baby snakes up close, after two litters of Armenian vipers made their debut at the Los Angeles Zoo Wednesday morning.
The original four adult Armenian vipers were joined by the baby snakes behind the glass at the zoo's Living Amphibians, Reptiles, and Invertebrates (LAIR) exhibit.
The near-threatened species, known for their charcoal gray and bright orange patterned bodies, is usually found in the Armenian Highlands and nearby countries including Turkey and Iran, zoo officials said.
Armenian vipers gave birth to two litters of baby snakes earlier this month after zoo staff worked to replicate the snakes' native harsh habitat and mating conditions. Unlike most other species of snakes that lay eggs, these snakes give live birth.
"In order to get them to reproduce here in sunny Los Angeles, we had to replicate a harsh Armenian winter which is close to freezing," said Ian Recchio, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the zoo, who added that the zoo plans to breed more.
The staff created a habitat with rocks in a large refrigerator to replicate the typical frigid rocky environment where the snakes make their dens. They used that habitat to house the snakes for their six month brumation period, which is similar to hibernation.
When the vipers awoke from their brumation, the staff reintroduced the males to the females after their time apart, which spurred the males to engage in combat for the chance to mate with the female snakes.
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After years of encouraging the snakes to breed, their methodology worked, and two female Armenian vipers gave birth twice this month.
"I fully believe the positive results were due to creating a habitat that mimics the species' environment in the wild," Recchio said.
While the snakes have a near-threatened status in the United States from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, they were reclassified to vulnerable in Armenia within the last few years, said Jeff Ettling, curator of herpetology at the St. Louis Zoo, which has a program for conserving and breeding Armenian vipers.
Their species has had an 88 percent reduction in population size in the past 40 years, largely due to habitat loss from farming and cattle pasturing, Ettling said.
The vipers eat rodents, small birds, and large insects, Ettling said. They rarely bite humans, he said.
"Recent studies have shown they have some of the most toxic venom of snakes in parts of Europe and Western Asia," Ettling said.
