CreatureData

Death adder

Acanthophis antarcticus (Shaw, 1802)

Status not recordedsnakes

The death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus) is a species in the family Elapidae, order Squamata. Recorded adults weigh about 384 g, reach 58 cm in length and live up to 9.3 years.

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Quick facts about the death adder

Weight
384 gsrc for Weight
Length
58 cmsrc for Length
Lifespan
9.3 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Carnivoresrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
15.5 years
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
grassland, shrublandsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
3 – 30src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
9.46 months – 3.5 yearssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
0.5src for Litters or clutches a year
Reproduction
Live birthsrc for Reproduction
Active
At night (nocturnal)src for Active
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the death adder?

DEATH ADDER · LENGTH 58 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 58 cm, the recorded maximum length of the death adder is about 34% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the death adder live?

Not recorded

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the death adder as introduced in 1 country.

  1. South Africa

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the death adder endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the death adder classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classReptilia
  4. orderSquamata
  5. familyElapidae
  6. genusAcanthophis
  7. SpeciesAcanthophis antarcticus (Shaw, 1802)

Synonyms Acanthophis antarcticus cliffrosswellingtoni, Acanthophis antarcticus schistos, Acanthophis brownii, Acanthophis cerastinus, Acanthophis cliffrosswellingtoni, Acanthophis schistos, Boa aculeata, Boa ambigua, Boa antarctica, Ophryas acanthophis, Vipera acanthophis, Vipera sorda

Other names and names in other languages (13)
  • Common death adderEnglish
  • Southern death adderEnglish
  • smrtonoš zmijíCzech
  • TodesotterGerman
  • Vipère de la mortFrench
  • déli halálkígyóHungarian
  • Vipera della morte comuneItalian
  • コモンデスアダーJapanese
  • zdradnica śmiercionośnaPolish
  • Гадюкообразная смертельная змеяRussian
  • DödsormSwedish
  • daningxdk
  • 死亡蛇Chinese

Catalogue of LifeiNaturalistITISWikidata

Relatives of the death adder

Other species in the same genus Acanthophis.

CompareDeath adder vs Desert death adderDeath adder vs Northern death adderDeath adder vs New Guinea death adderDeath adder vs Plains death adder

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the death adder?

An adult death adder weighs 384 g and measures 58 cm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

How long does the death adder live?

The death adder has a recorded lifespan of 9.3 years.

Is the death adder an invasive species?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the death adder as introduced in 1 country: South Africa, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.

What kind of animal is the death adder?

The death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus) belongs to the family Elapidae in the order Squamata.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/death-adder

MLA

“Death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/death-adder.

BibTeX
@misc{death_adder_2026,
  title = {Death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/death-adder},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}