Northern death adder
Acanthophis praelongus Ramsay, 1877
Status not recordedsnakes
The northern death adder (Acanthophis praelongus) is a species in the family Elapidae, order Squamata. Recorded adults weigh about 131 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the northern death adder
- Weight
- 131 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- up to 70 cmsrc for Length
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Carnivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 15 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- grassland, shrublandsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- 12 – 23.1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Reproduction
- Live birthsrc for Reproduction
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the northern death adder live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The northern death adder is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ReptileDB (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
Where has it been introduced?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the northern death adder as introduced in 1 country, and flagged as invasive in it.
- Mexicoinvasive
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 northern 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 northern death adder classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classReptilia
- orderSquamata
- familyElapidae
- genusAcanthophis
- SpeciesAcanthophis praelongus Ramsay, 1877
Other names and names in other languages (7)
- smrtonoš severníCzech
- Nördliche TodesotterGerman
- Víbora venenosa australianaSpanish
- Víbora de la muerte del norteSpanish
- északi halálkígyóHungarian
- Vipera della morte settentrionaleItalian
- 北部棘蛇Chinese
Relatives of the northern death adder
Other species in the same genus Acanthophis.
Death adder
Acanthophis antarcticus
Desert death adder
Acanthophis pyrrhus
New Guinea death adder
Acanthophis laevis
Plains death adder
Acanthophis hawkei
Papuan death adder
Acanthophis rugosus
Pilbara death adder
Acanthophis wellsi
CompareNorthern death adder vs Death adderNorthern death adder vs Desert death adderNorthern death adder vs New Guinea death adderNorthern death adder vs Plains death adder
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the northern death adder?
An adult northern death adder weighs 131 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the northern death adder live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the northern death adder for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the northern death adder an invasive species?
In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the northern death adder as invasive in 1 country: Mexico. It lists it as introduced in 1 in all.
What kind of animal is the northern death adder?
The northern death adder (Acanthophis praelongus) 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.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-11-13
Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Northern death adder (Acanthophis praelongus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/northern-death-adder
“Northern death adder (Acanthophis praelongus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/northern-death-adder.
@misc{northern_death_adder_2026,
title = {Northern death adder (Acanthophis praelongus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/northern-death-adder},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}