• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.85-92
• /
• 2014

In order to study the home range of the red-tongue viper snake (Gloydis ussuriensis) and the short-tailed viper snake (Gloydius saxatilis) belonging to the viperidae of squamat in Korea, we implanted radio-transmitters which were weighed less than 5% of individual mass in them and traced their location by radio-tracking. Surgeries for transmitter insertion were performed on 5 red-tongue viper snakes and 6 short-tailed viper snakes (total 11 individuals) and the average ratio of transmitter mass to body mass were 4.2% and 2.2%, respectively. After radio-transmitter implantation, all short-tailed viper snakes survived but 4 out of 5 red-tongue viper snakes did not survive during the convalescence stage, showing only 20% of survival rate. The results suggest that the ratio of transmitter mass to body mass should be less than 3.6% at least in these species, although previous studies have recommended various ranges from 1% to 7% as the acceptable ratios.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.657-663
• /
• 2014

This study was conducted to investigate the difference in feeding habits of Red-Tongued Viper Snakes, according to available foods sources and areas. The effects of differences in food sources were found on Red-Tongued Viper Snake inhabited in the Jeju Island and its islet Gapado, from May 2006 to Nov. 2010. The food sources for the Red-Tongued viper snake population in the Jeju Island were found to be as follows: Chinese red-headed centipedes (Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans), Jeju Salamanders (Hynobius quelpaertensis), Japanese tree Frogs (Hyla japonica), Narrow-mouthed Toad (Kaloula borealis), Dybowski's Brown Frogs (Rana dybowskii), Black-spotted Pond Frogs (Rana nigromaculata), Smooth Skinks (Scincella vandenburghi), Asian Keelback Snakes (Amphiesma vibakari), Lesser White-toothed Shrews (Crosidura shantungensis), Hallasan Shrews (Sorex caecutiens hallamontanus), and Jeju Striped Field Mice (Apodemus chejuensis). This implies that Red-Tongued Viper Snakes mainly feed on amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals. Among these, amphibians occupied the highest portion at 55.2% followed by mammals at 20.7%, centipedes at 13.8%, and reptiles at 10.3%. On the contrary, Red-tongued viper snake population in Gapado only feed on Chinese red-headed centipedes and Smooth Skinks (S. vandenburghi). Since only a small amount of nutrient can be obtained from Chinese red-headed centipeds or Smooth Skinks, this feeding habit for Red-tongued viper snake would adversely effect on the growth or regeneration. The reason why Red-Tongued viper snake population in the Gapado mainly feed on Lizard and Centipedes in spite of relatively various available food sources, might be due to the low density of other food sources in the Gapado. Red-Tongued viper snake could be feeding on foods that are low in quality but are easily accessible, to minimize energy consumption on searching for other more nutritious foods. A snake tends to select the size of its food depending on the size of its own head. The positive correlation was found between the size of the heads of Red-Tongued viper snakes from the Jeju island and the diameter of their foods. The head size was larger in the males than females in viper snake population from the Jeju Island, which might effect on their selection of foods. However, no significant difference was found between the sizes of the head and the food in the Red-Tongued viper snake population from the Gapado. The findings of this study would provide meaningful data, which directly shows that even within the same viper species they choose different available food sources according to their inhabitance. This leads to their growth and adaptation to their environment which is beneficial for sustaining of its population.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.17
• /
• pp.117-125
• /
• 2001

Envenoming by Russells viper causes a broad spectrum of renal impairment. Renal failure is an important complication in patients bitten by Russells viper. Experimental work in animals and in vitro has elucidated pathophysiological mechanisms that contribute to life threatening complications and have suggested possibilities for therapeutic intervention. The evidence in experimental animals regarding mechanisms of venom action in relation to changes in either extrarenal or intrarenal factors is presented. The cardiovascular system and renal hemodynamics are affected by venom. Reductions of renal function including renal hemodynamics are associated directly with changes in general circulation during envenomation. Possible endogenous mechanisms for releasing the hormone inducing renal vasoconstriction after envenomation are evident. Hormonal factor such as the catecholamine, prostaglandin and renin angiotensin systems induce these changes. Direct nephrotoxicity of venom action is studied in the isolated per-fused kidney. Characteristic polarization of the cell membrane, changes of mitochondrial activity and Na-K ATPase in renal tubular cells are observed. Changes in renal function and the cardiovascular system are observed of ter envenomation and are reversed by the administration of Russells viper antivenom (purified equine immunoglobulin, $Fab_2$ fragment). The neutralizing effects are more efficient when the intravenous injection of antivenom is given within 30 min after the envenomation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2003.05a
• /
• pp.1009-1009
• /
• 2003

VIPER a new tool for the VIsual PERception of sound quality and for sound design will be presented. Requirement for the visualization of sound quality is a signal analysis modeling the information processing of the ear. The first step of the signal processing implemented in VIPER, calculates an auditory spectrogram by a filter bank adapted to the time- and frequency resolution of the human ear. The second step removes redundant information by extracting time- and frequency contours from the auditory spectrogram in analogy to contours of the visual system. In a third step contours and/or auditory spectrogram can be resynthesised confirming that only aurally relevant information were extracted. The visualization of the contours in VIPER allows intuitively to grasp the important components of a signal. Contributions of parts of a signal to the overall quality can be easily auralized by editing and resynthesising the contours or the underlying auditory spectrogram. Resynthesis of time contours alone allows e.g. to auralize impulsive components separately from the tonal components. Further processing of the contours determines tonal parts in form of tracks. Audible differences between two versions of a sound can be visually inspected in VIPER through the help of auditory distance spectrograms. Applications are shown for the sound design of several interior noises of cars.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.193-204
• /
• 2014

The distribution of animals is affected by habitat selection, and habitat type and prey resource are important factors affecting their survival. This study was conducted to investigate the distribution pattern of the Red-tongue viper snake (Gloydius ussuriensis) with respect to altitude, habitat type and distribution of potential prey resource in Cheon-ma mountain, Korea. The study area of Cheon-ma mountain was separated into three altitude categories (low, middle, and high altitude) and the habitat types were categorized according to presence or absence of aquatic ecosystem and the preferred habitat in relation to altitude was determined. The distribution pattern of Red-tongue viper snakes was significantly different according to altitude and habitat type: they were mainly distributed at low altitude and in the water valleys. The distribution pattern of the Red-tongue viper snake correlated with that of amphibians. The analyses of microhabitat use of the Red-tongue viper snake and amphibians showed that their microhabitat types were not different significantly in water valleys. In conclusion, Red-tongue viper snakes were mainly distributed in the water valleys at low altitude and this is because amphibians are important as potential prey of the Red-tongue viper snake in Cheon-ma mountain.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.192-199
• /
• 2015

This study was conducted to investigate the movement and home range of the red-tongued viper snake (Gloydius ussuriensis) from June 2006 to June 2009. This snake species inhabits an islet on Jeju Island, Gapado. A total of 132 individual snakes were marked during the study. Among the marked individuals, the number of snakes recaptured more than once was 22 (16.8 %) and the number of individuals recaptured more than twice was eight (6.1 %), indicating a relatively low recapture rate. The durations from capture to recapture varied from 1 to 710 days. However, the capture points were not much different, indicating that the moved distance of snakes and the interval between capture-recapture were not correlated. The home ranges of the Red-tongued viper snakes calculated from data of the snakes which were captured more than three times using the MCP(minimum convex polygon) method were $8{\sim}167m^2(64.0{\pm}57.0m^2)$, suggesting that this snake is relatively sedentary. Home range size differences between female ($Mean=62.0m^2$) and male ($Mean=66.0m^2$) snakes were not significant. In the red-tongued viper population of Gapado, there was no statistically significant relationship between body size and home range size although it was positively correlated (r=0.675). Our results provide valuable data to understand life patterns of the red-tongued viper snakes and will be useful when conducting further ecological studies on other snake species.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.542-549
• /
• 2014

This study was conducted to investigate the body size, sexual size dimorphism (SSD), and related environmental factors between Red-tongued viper snakes (Gloydius ussuriensis) inhabiting two different places, i.e., Jeju Island and its islet Gapado, and to provide data required to maintain species diversity from May, 2006 until June, 2009. The snout-vent length of the Red-tongued viper snake population inhabiting Jeju Island was found to be 242-532 mm ($422.0{\pm}46.7mm$, n = 100) in females and 296-580 mm ($434.5{\pm}51.7mm$, n = 63) in males. In contrast, the snout-vent length was observed to be 205-395 mm ($335{\pm}43.6mm$, n = 55) in female and 215-430 mm ($328{\pm}39.4mm$, n = 73) in male Red-tongued viper snakes inhabiting Gapado. These data demonstrated the snout-vent length of both female and male Red-tongued viper snakes on Jeju Island to be larger than those on Gapado (Female t = 17.343, df = 115, P<0.001; Male = 19.128, df = 101, P<0.001). SSD was measured to be -0.03 in the Red-tongued viper snake population on Jeju Island, with more or less larger sizes in the males, while it was 0.02 in the Red-tongued viper snake population in the Gapado, with a little larger sizes in the females. The reason for this difference in the snake populations between Jeju Island and Gapado may be due to adaption to the different ecological environments. In addition, as SSD, the snout-vent length of the Red-tongued viper snake populations and in young vipers was somewhat higher in the males than in the females on Jeju Island (t = -2.011, df = 117, P<0.05). However, no significant differences were observed in the snout-vent length of the young and the general Red-tongued viper snake populations on Gapa Island. For the population on Jeju island, the head length (F = 6.318, $df_{1,2}$=1,117, P<0.05), head width (F=8.090, $df_{1,2}$=1,117, P<0.01), inter eye length (F=15.898, $df_{1,2}$=1,117, P<0.001), and tail length (F=238.488, $df_{1,2}$=1,111, P<0.001) were all larger in the males, while females showed higher body mass (F=64.111, $df_{1,2}$=1,114, P<0.001). In the case of the Gapa Island population, no significant differences in the head length, head width, and inter eye length between females and males were observed, while the males had a longer tail length (F=168.555, $df_{1,2}$=1,74, P<0.001) and the females were heavier (F=17.812, $df_{1,2}$=1,76, P<0.001). Though no significant differences were found in the head length, head width, and inter eye length, the tail length (F=67.793, $df_{1,2}$=1,72, P<0.001) and body mass (F=4.558, $df_{1,2}$=1,72, P<0.05) were higher in the young male Red-tongued viper snakes than in the females. The snout-vent length, head length, head width, and inter eye length, which did not display SSD in the young Red-tongued viper snake populations, were higher in the male Red-tongued viper snake populations than in the female population from Jeju Island, implying that SSD in the Red-tongued viper snake population on Jeju Island is expressed due to environmental effects during their growth.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.477-486
• /
• 2016

We investigated the growth pattern of Red-tongued viper snakes (Gloydius ussuriensis), which were captured from the islet of the Jeju Island, Gapado between April, 2006 and November, 2009. The results indicated that there were some snakes that grew relatively fast, but most snakes either almost did not grow or grew around 10mm in snout-vent length during one year period. High growth rates was April and June. Since the growth rate of snakes is highly correlated with their foods, these results implied that the feeding activity of Red-tongued viper snakes is high during this period compared to other months. In female, difference in body condition between good-conditioned and bad-conditioned snakes became large as time elapsed from April to June. The body condition of the male Red-tongued viper snakes improved with the progression of time from April till June. Many of the Red-tongued viper snakes were captured between April and June, while they were rarely captured between July and September. Some of the Red-tongued viper snakes were captured during the autumn season. This tendency was because snakes were rarely active during hibernation and peak summer seasons. Thus, Red-tongued viper snakes are active between April and June and between September and November. They then go into hibernation as the temperature dropped in November. Furthermore, the limitation of the movement period of the Red-tongued viper snakes restricted their feeding activities while foods became scarce, which ultimately restricted their overall growth rate. The growth rate of the snakes decreased with age. The snout-vent length of the Red-tongued viper snakes and growth rate showed a negative correlation (r = -0.591), however, it was not statistically significant due to small sample size. The findings from this study could provide meaningful information in the further study of the life cycle of Red-tongued viper snakes.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.165-177
• /
• 2003

The study was carried out to investigate the researches of Snake which was published papers in the TOXlCON(1990-2000), one of the most famous Journal of toxicology. And the results were as follows : 1. The number related with Snake is 195papers. 2. There were great papers related wih Cobra, and next is Tigris, Viper, etc. 3. There were great papers related wih protein in the composition of snake venom. 4. There were great papers related wih neurotoxin in the research of poisonous character. 5. There were great papers related wih Viper according to the anticoagulation. 6 Eight papers were published to study the immune response of snake venom. 7. The papers of molecular study of snake venom were seven. 8. The papers of anti-snake venom study were three.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.531-541
• /
• 2014

This research investigated the reproduction cycle, litter size, and the effects of factors of red-tongue viper snake inhabiting in Jeju Island, to delve into their life strategy. Field survey was conducted in Jeju Island from May 2006 to November 2008. Reproduction cycle was analyzed through measurements of testis and follicle sizes in laboratory from March 2009 to December 2010. According to the research results, the sizes of red-tongue viper snake's testis and follicle clearly changed seasonally. The number of eggs within the oviduct were greater on the right side ($2.6{\pm}1.0$ eggs, n=16) than on the left side ($1.8{\pm}0.5$ eggs, n=16) (t=-2,721, p<0.05). Average (${\pm}SD$) of survival litter size (SLS) was $4.4{\pm}1.7$ (1~9, range), while total litter size (TLS) was $4.7{\pm}1.5$ (3~9, range), which were not statistically significant. However, their litter sizes were similar to the number of eggs within the oviduct (t=0.039, P>0.05). Relative litter mass (RCM) was $0.42{\pm}0.13$ (0.18~0.79, n=33), and tended to increase, as maternal condition of pre-parturition (MCPPI) was getting better. The sexual ratio of delivered litters showed no significant difference between male and female red-tongue viper snakes (♂:♀ = 1.15:1, n=73 ; ${\chi}^2$=0.342, P>0.5). Average neonate mass showed a weak correlation with maternal mass of pre-parturition (MMPP1) (r=0.387, P<0.05, n=33). Average neonate Snout-vent length (SVL) also demonstrated a weak correlations with maternal SVL (r=0.399, P<0.05, n=33) and MMPP1 (r=0.344, P<0.05, n=33). Average neonate mass and maternal SVL approached significant probability (r=0.323, P=0.067, n=33). This indicates that mother snakes can bear bigger litter due to its larger size. In some cases, litter's weight decreases as mother snakes are bearing more litter; however, the red-tongued viper snake did not show such exchange relationship. From this, it can be conjectured that a red-tongued viper snake has peculiarity of its own species. The research results are predicted to be used as the basis to find a life history of red-tongued viper snake.