# Adder (*Vipera berus*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/vipera-berus  
Data as of: 2026-11-11

The adder (Vipera berus) is a snake in the family Viperidae, subfamily Viperinae, within the order Squamata of the class Reptilia. It falls in the small size class, with a representative adult body mass of 279 g. Its main foods include anguis fragilis, anura, bird, caudata, egg, house mouse, mole, newt, rattus, soricidae, vole and weasel. The adder is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category, and its lifespan ranges from 10 to 19 years.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 70.2 g – 279 g |
| Length | 49.8 cm |
| Lifespan | 10 years – 10.6 years |
| Diet | Carnivore |
| Longest recorded lifespan | 30 years |
| Main food | anguis fragilis, anura, bird, caudata, egg, house mouse and 6 more |
| Habitat | forest |
| Young per litter or clutch | 4.7 – 20 |
| Age at maturity | 2 years – 4 years |
| Litters or clutches a year | 0.5 |
| Reproduction | Live birth |
| Active | By day (diurnal) |
| Lifestyle | Terrestrial |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | Not recorded |

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Reptilia
- order: Squamata
- family: Viperidae
- genus: Vipera
- species: *Vipera berus* (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms: *Berus vulgaris*, *Chersea vulgaris*, *Coluber berus*, *Coluber chersea*, *Coluber chersea var. marasso*, *Coluber melanis*, *Coluber prester*, *Coluber sachalinensis continentalis*, *Coluber sachalinensis continentalis*, *Coluber sachalinensis sachalinensis*, *Coluber vipera anglorum*, *Colubris cherseae var. marasso*, *Pelias berus*, *Pelias berus*, *Pelias berus lugubris*, *Pelias dorsalis*, *Pelias schreiberi*, *Pelias sudetica*, *Pelias tyrolensis*, *Vipera aspoides*, *Vipera aspoides annulata*, *Vipera barani*, *Vipera berus*, *Vipera berus bosniensis*, *Vipera berus f. bilineata*, *Vipera berus f. brunneomarcata*, *Vipera berus f. chersea-splendens*, *Vipera berus f. luteoalba*, *Vipera berus f. ochracea-splendens*, *Vipera berus f. punctata*, *Vipera berus f. rutila*, *Vipera berus ochracea*, *Vipera berus pseudaspis*, *Vipera berus rudolphi-marchica*, *Vipera berus sachalinensis*, *Vipera berus sachalinensis*, *Vipera berus var. montana*, *Vipera berus var. pseudaspis*, *Vipera communis*, *Vipera coronis aspoides*, *Vipera coronis coronis*, *Vipera coronis leopardina*, *Vipera coronis nigroides*, *Vipera coronis zamenoides*, *Vipera limnaea*, *Vipera pelias*, *Vipera prester var. gagatina*, *Vipera sachalinensis*, *Vipera torva*, *Vipera trigonocephala*, *Vipera trilamina*, *Vipera walser*

## Common questions

### What kind of animal is the adder?

The adder is a snake, a reptile in the family Viperidae and the genus Vipera.

### How heavy is an adder?

An adult adder has a representative body mass of 279 g, placing it in the small size class.

### What does the adder eat?

The adder's main foods include anguis fragilis, anura, bird, caudata, egg, house mouse, mole, newt, rattus, soricidae, vole and weasel.

### How long does an adder live?

The adder's lifespan ranges from 10 to 19 years, with a representative value of 10.55 years.

### How many young does an adder have?

The representative value is 10.5 young per litter or eggs per clutch, and the lowest value reported is 9.

### Who named the adder?

The adder, Vipera berus, carries the authority (Linnaeus, 1758).

### What other names does the adder have?

The adder is also called viper, common viper, northern viper and Nikolsky's viper.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), 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](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), 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
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4), 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](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b), 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
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Adder (Vipera berus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/vipera-berus