Pictured: Plzeň (illustrative image)
Pictured: Plzeň (illustrative image)Photo: Txllxt TxllxT, 2011 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Plzeň Zoo, in Plzeň, has bred young spider-tailed horned vipers (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides) for the second time. It reported the success in late October 2026.[1][2]

The female laid a clutch of five eggs this year. According to the keeper Karel Kodejš, mating of these nocturnal snakes could not be observed directly this time either. The young hatched from the eggs in the incubator after 40 days and four of them survived. According to the zoo, the young vipers stabilised after a month and eat geckos. They are so far ignoring baby mice, which are easier to obtain; this is usual for the species, and according to Kodejš they will switch to them after about half a year.[1][2]

The zoo's first breeding took place in summer 2025. Six young began hatching on 27 July and the next day all of them were out of their eggs. According to Deník, the Plzeň zoo was then the first public institution in the world to breed young spider-tailed horned vipers. For the 2025 breeding it received the Bílý slon (White Elephant) award, which is given to zoos in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.[1][2]

Kodejš described the repeated breeding as more valuable than the first, because in his view it confirms that the husbandry conditions are set correctly. The spider-tailed horned vipers live in the Plzeň zoo in the Království jedu exhibit.[1][2]

Sources

  1. Deník: Plzeňský kraj — 30 October 2026
  2. Novinky.cz — 30 October 2026