CreatureData

Red adder

Bitis rubida Branch, 1997

Status not recordedsnakes

The red adder (Bitis rubida) is a species in the family Viperidae, order Squamata. Source checklists list it for 1 country: South Africa.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the red adder

Weight
up to 41.8 g
Length
up to 44 cm
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Carnivore
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
desert, shrubland
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Reproduction
Live birth
Active
Day and night (cathemeral)
Lifestyle
Terrestrial
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Where does the red 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 red adder is listed for 1 country.

South Africa
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. South Africa

Is the red 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 red adder classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classReptilia
  4. orderSquamata
  5. familyViperidae
  6. genusBitis
  7. SpeciesBitis rubida Branch, 1997

Synonyms Bitis caudalis, Bitis cornuta albanica, Bitis inornata

Other names and names in other languages (5)
  • RooiadderAfrikaans
  • Rote PuffotterGerman
  • Vipera rossaItalian
  • レッドアダーJapanese
  • 紅噝蝰Chinese

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the red adder

Other species in the same genus Bitis.

LC, Least Concern
Puff adder (Bitis arietans)

Puff adder

Bitis arietans

Viperidae

CompareRed adder vs Gaboon viperRed adder vs Puff adderRed adder vs Rhinoceros viperRed adder vs Dwarf puff adder

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Where does the red adder live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the red adder for 1 country: South Africa. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

What kind of animal is the red adder?

The red adder (Bitis rubida) belongs to the family Viperidae in the order Squamata.

Sources and how to cite this page

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

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Red adder (Bitis rubida). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-adder

MLA

“Red adder (Bitis rubida).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-adder.

BibTeX
@misc{red_adder_2026,
  title = {Red adder (Bitis rubida)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-adder},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}