Viperine snake
Natrix maura (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status not recordedsnakes
The viperine snake (Natrix maura) is a species in the family Colubridae, order Squamata. Recorded adults weigh about 384 g.
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Quick facts about the viperine snake
- Weight
- 384 g
- Length
- up to 95 cm
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 20 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- shrubland, woodland
- Egg incubation
- 45.5 days
- Young per litter or clutch
- 11.5 – 12
- Age at maturity
- 4.5 years
- Litters or clutches a year
- 3 – 4
- Reproduction
- Eggs
- Active
- By day (diurnal)
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the viperine snake live?
Not recorded
Is the viperine snake 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 viperine snake classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classReptilia
- orderSquamata
- familyColubridae
- genusNatrix
- SpeciesNatrix maura (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Coluber maurus, Coluber terstriatus, Coluber viperinus, Coluber viperinus aurolineatus, Coluber viperinus var. auro-lineatus, Coluber viperinus var. ichthyocharis, Natrix cherseoides, Natrix ocellata, Natrix viperina, Natrix viperina var. bilineata, Tropidonotus bonellii, Tropidonotus chersoides, Tropidonotus viperianus, Tropidonotus viperinus, Tropidonotus viperinus var. incerta
Other names and names in other languages (29)
- Viperine water snakeEnglish
- نطريق مغاربيArabic
- Cullebra d'auguaAragonese
- culiebra viperinaAsturian
- Serp d'AiguaCatalan
- užovka maurskáCzech
- HugormesnogDanish
- VipernatterGerman
- Culebra ViperinaSpanish
- Suge biperakaraBasque
- kyyrantakäärmeFinnish
- Couleuvre vipérineFrench
- Cobra viperinaGalician
- viperasiklóHungarian
- natrice viperinaItalian
- Маварска барска змијаMacedonian
- AdderringslangDutch
- Zaskroniec żmijopodobnyPolish
- Cobra-de-água-viperinaPortuguese
- Гадюковый ужRussian
- mavrska vodaricaSlovenian
- viperasnokSwedish
- Гадюковий вужUkrainian
- 歐洲水蛇Chinese
- Colobra escurçoneraCatalan
- VipernnatterGerman
- Couleuvre mauresqueFrench
- Couleuvre vipérine (La)French
- huggormssnokSwedish
Relatives of the viperine snake
Other species in the same genus Natrix.

Grass snake
Natrix natrix

Dice snake
Natrix tessellata
Grass snake
Natrix helvetica
Iberian grass snake
Natrix astreptophora
CompareViperine snake vs Grass snakeViperine snake vs Dice snakeViperine snake vs Grass snakeViperine snake vs Iberian grass snake
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the viperine snake?
An adult viperine snake weighs 384 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
What kind of animal is the viperine snake?
The viperine snake (Natrix maura) belongs to the family Colubridae in the order Squamata.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. 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 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - 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 - Wikimedia Commons · 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). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - 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 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - 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 - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · 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).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Viperine snake (Natrix maura). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/viperine-snake
“Viperine snake (Natrix maura).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/viperine-snake.
@misc{viperine_snake_2026,
title = {Viperine snake (Natrix maura)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/viperine-snake},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}