Puff adders (Bitis arietans) are widely distributed throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, except in dense rainforest areas and Madagascar. They have a tell-tale flat head with a straight line between the eyes, a thick body with chevron markings, and a stumpy tail, which is longer in males than in females. Puff adders are not endangered in the savanna and grassland biomes of Southern Africa.
Puff adder behavior
In relaxed situations, puff adders move rectilinearly, only when stressed change to serpentine motion. If threatened, they coil up in an S-shape and hiss loudly at the intruder, therefore the name ‘puff adder’. They are wait-and-hit hunters, which rely on their camouflage. Surface vibrations will usually not startle them, which is dangerous, as it quickly happens to step on them. If they hit, they hit very fast. With a speed of over 5 m/sec (15 feet/sec).
Adders are hinged front-fang snakes. Their venom is cytotoxic and works by destroying tissue. A bite is connected with severe pain at the site of the bite. Thereafter, swelling and blistering of tissue occur around the bitten area, followed by tissue death and later the onset of infection. The reason for death is mainly cardiac arrest. Polyvalent antivenom is available in areas and clinics where these snakes occur. Puff adders are responsible for more fatalities in Africa than from any other snake species.
Processing of a puff adder
One puff adder male was removed from the ecosystem for educational purposes and as an exception. The students were shown how to process and cook a good-sized, meaty snake for sustenance in an emergency.
After humanly killing the snake, it was hung on its neck in a paracord sling. After making an incision around the neck and well behind the venom glands, the skin was pulled away from the body in a glove-like fashion.
At this point, we must add a warning: Snakes don’t die quickly! They will move and wiggle around for a long time. Once, I found a big Boomslang (Dispholidus typus) on the road, which was rolled over by a previously passing car. The head with about 15 cm / 6’’ long neckpiece was wholly severed from the snake. Both body and head were lying motionless on the road. When I tried to touch the head and neckpiece, the supposedly dead snake came to life again, and the head and neckpiece tried to jump and bite me. Fortunately, I was faster and learned the lesson.
After completely removing the skin, the head and a 10 cm / 4’’ long neck piece behind the head were cut off. These parts contained the biting apparatus and venom sacks. The snake must be either securely burnt or dug and covered into the ground. After that, it has to be gutted and cleaned for further cooking.
Cooking of a puff adder
During that survival course, the snake’s body was initially browned in a pot with onions. This, however, is not necessary, as available vegetables can also be prepared separately in a pot due to the different cooking times of snake meat and vegetables.
After browning, the snake was cut and hacked into fist-long pieces. These pieces were then fried in a pan until fully cooked.
Generally, frying such thick snake pieces is not easy, as they are half-round and bent in both directions. The curvature is along the vertebrate and around the rips, and the meat has to be cooked thoroughly through.
After quite a long cooking time, the students could try the meat. And everybody was surprised at how well it tasted.
It was not like chicken, as the cliché goes, but more of stringy but flavorful white meat. The common opinion was that in an emergency, the risk should be taken to harvest such a common species and sustain one’s own life.
The field dressing and cooking a puff adder video can be found under the following link.
Lessons learned for field dressing and cooking of a puff adder:
- It is risky business to catch and kill such a dangerous snake
- When processing, special care has to be taken not to get in contact with the venom
- A Leatherman or pair of pliers comes in handy for skinning
- Small pieces of snake are more uncomplicated to fry than larger ones.
- Puff adder meat tastes delicious.
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