Talk:Gaboon viper/Archive 1

Venom Speed of Onset
It would be interesting to know how fast acting the venom is on humans and other animals. As opposed to just how much is needed to kill someone. Do you have an hour to get treatment? Half a day? 15 minutes? I understand that the Mamba's venom is very fast acting. It might be good for people to be able to understand how fast the Gabon Viper's venom acts. And of course I refer to the 'average' man and 'average' woman, since both will likely react differently. Including the weight etc. of what is considered 'average'.

Theshowmecanuck (talk) 16:20, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Fangs
the gaboon viper has the longest fangs [5 cm] in the world —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.166.247.95 (talk • contribs)


 * According to Mallow et al. (2003), this is true. According to Spawls and Branch (1995), they even reach 55 mm! --Jwinius 21:15, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Antelopes
just how small would an antelope have to be to be eaten by a 1.5m long snake? a "pinky" antelope? i suspect the part regarding antelopes and monkeys should be removed, but i have added the fact template as i am not authoritative. ... aa:talk 00:31, 14 July 2006 (UTC)


 * This is a big snake and the royal antelope is small (Neotragus). That the former has preyed upon the latter is reported Mallow et al. (2003). --Jwinius 21:15, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Venom
An ld-50 of 0.14 would certainly make it one of the world's most venomous snakes however, the gaboon viper's ld-50 is no where NEAR 0.14 on ANY routes of envenomation. Subcutaneous bieng the most likely, Bitus gabonica ld-50 is 12.5. As per DR.Brian Grieg Fry, website: venomdoc.com. toddg


 * You are absolutely correct (whoever you are). An LD50 of 0.14 is more like sea snake venom -- way too potent for B. gabonica. We have good old "130.39.115.62" (1 June 2006) to thank for this totally unreferenced factoid. I plan to rewrite this article soon and will see to it personally that this information is corrected. As a matter of fact, I'll get rid of it now. --Jwinius 21:15, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I’ve just seen a documentary film by Austin Stevens, the animal photographer (and definitely adventurer). Stevens mentioned that the venom of gaboon vipers has two components, one neurotoxic and the other psychotoxic. I came here to learn more about that. I’m not qualified to write anything about it myself. I’d like to know the chemical structures and more about the psychotoxic effects. I presume the neurotoxic component is a polypeptide, as are so many animal toxins, and there is no need for the entire structure, just for confirmation of my presumption. But the neurotoxic component? Walter Turner 91.54.115.14 (talk) 13:15, 5 June 2016 (UTC) Naturally, I meant the psychotoxic component a the end. Walter Turner 79.205.105.205 (talk) 19:04, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

GA on hold
This article will be put on hold (for 7 days) until the minor adjustments asked in the additional comments are made:


 * 1. Well written? Pass
 * 2. Factually accurate? Pass
 * 3. Broad in coverage? Pass
 * 4. Neutral point of view? Pass
 * 5. Article stability? Pass
 * 6. Images? Pass

Additional comments :
 * Sections Description & Venom need more wikilinks.
 * Can Guinea, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo, Central African Republic, southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, eastern Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, eastern Zimbabwe, Mozambique, northeast KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa. be turned into a real phrase with SVO (missing the verb). Lincher 01:45, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

GA awarded
Mentioned additions were taken care of. Since all the criteria were met than this is a GA. Cheers, Lincher 01:28, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Big nose horns on east African subspecies
In the show Seven Deadly Strikes, Austin Stevens was on the east side of Southern Africa, in the St. Lucia estuary when he found a female with abnormally large nose horns. Is the show staged, or is it just because this sometimes happens? Should there be a mention in the article about this??? Frankyboy5 07:08, 5 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't think anyone should take shows like this too seriously. They're entertaining, and I like watching them myself, but so many scenes in wildlife series like this, from Marlin Perkins' Wild Kingdom onwards, have been staged to some extent, so they are of questionable scientific value. This particular story may have been completely staged, or there may also be some truth to it. For example, it could be that Austin Stevens did indeed find it there, but that it's an atypical specimen. It would therefore be interesting to find a reliable scientific account describing the B. gabonica population in St. Lucia in order to verify what you saw. --Jwinius 13:14, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Austin is accused by some "unreliable" (some however, may be zoo curators) people of abusing animals. Frankyboy5 05:35, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Zimbabwe habitat
Common Sense: Zimbabwe is a landlocked country, therefore you will not be finding Gaboon Vipers in the coastal forests. As there are no significant Dune Regions, don't try looking there either. They can, however, be found in the forested areas of the eastern highlands. To verify this info, look at a map. -- 86.135.108.144 14:37, 30 June 2007


 * Good point, although I wish you'd make yourself an account and discuss these things first here on the talk page. I suppose this is an example of me paraphrasing from Mallow et al. (2003) without thinking. This is the paragraph that I got my information from:
 * "... In Zimbabwe, they are found only in high rainfall zones along the forested eastern escarpment. They are locally restricted to coastal forests, dune regions and remnant montane forest (Branch, 1992). ..."
 * It was a mistake on my part to associate the second sentence with the first. Hopefully, the current description will be more to your liking. --Jwinius 13:47, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Automatic addition of "class=GA"
A bot has added class=GA to the WikiProject banners on this page, as it's listed as a good article. If you see a mistake, please revert, and leave a note on the bot's talk page. Thanks, BOT Giggabot (talk) 04:56, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

New Sub-Species Found
It would appear that there has been a new sub-species found of this snake, and according to the info, contradicts the information specifically relating to 'venom' in this article. Just giving a heads up if anyone particularly close to this article wants to do some further research. *Source* 81.155.138.55 (talk) 04:17, 22 December 2008 (UTC)


 * We shall have to wait and see. First, someone will produce a paper describing the new subspecies, after which we will mention the new taxon and publication in the taxonomy section of this article. Later, if the consensus within the herpetological community is indeed to recognize it as a new subspecies -- and not just as a variant of B. g. gabonica -- then I'm sure ITIS will include it in their database, after which we will add it to the the subspecies table in this article. Thanks for the info, though. It's always nice to hear about little unspoiled corners of the world being discovered, along with new surprises. --Jwinius (talk) 16:00, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Requested move 25 August 2015

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: moved. Jenks24 (talk) 01:37, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

Bitis gabonica → Gaboon viper – This species has a well-established common name, so we should use that name as the article title per WP:COMMONNAME / WP:NCFAUNA. —BarrelProof (talk) 18:03, 25 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Support per WP:FAUNA and the guidelines of "recognizability" and "naturalness". — the Man in Question (in question)  20:13, 25 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. FoCuS contribs ;  talk to me!  21:47, 25 August 2015 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Gaboon viper. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060925070717/http://biology.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/ to http://biology.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 01:22, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

Annoying "venomous viper"
This article, like many other articles on Wikipedia, starts by telling the reader that the discussed species is a "venomous viper". Various other articles on Wikipedia say they are about a "nonvenomous python", a "nonvenomous boa", a "venomous elapid", etc. I personally find this phrasing rather annoying. It's sort of like saying that the topic is a "warm-blooded mammal", a "four-legged cat", an "air-breathing bird", a "female woman", etc. The Lion article could say "A lion is a species of air-breathing warm-blooded mammalian four-legged cat that is found in Africa and Asia." Somehow we know better than to say that sort of thing about cats and people, but not snakes. —BarrelProof (talk) 06:25, 3 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I'm mixed. On one hand, it's redundant, but on the other, it's often a salient point that people may not know (I know, I know, but seriously, people don't know this stuff).  Maybe an alternative would be "Species X is a viper/python/cat from Location and blah blah blah blah.  Like all vipers/pythons/cats, it is venomous/nonvenomous, add information about venom if present."  That way, someone with zero knowledge of snakes can look up the species and quickly tell if it's venomous without having to click a link, but the wording is less awful. HCA (talk) 14:38, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Gaboon viper. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060904072800/http://sbsweb.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/Updates/Viperinae1999.htm to http://sbsweb.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/Updates/Viperinae1999.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 21:18, 9 October 2017 (UTC)