The West African gaboon viper (Bitis rhinoceros) and the Eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) belong to the largest venomous snakes in the world. Both species can grow at least 2 meters long and can weigh over 10 kg. The West African gaboon viper and the Eastern diamondback rattlesnake have very high venom yields. The typical amounts of venom injected in one bite are massive. But which one of these heavyweight vipers is deadlier? In this video we use 5 categories to find out who would win a hypothetical battle between these deadly snakes! We compare the behavior, size, speed, venom and also how difficult it is to handle these snakes.
Note: West African gaboon viper (Bitis rhinoceros) was considered the same species as the Gaboon viper (Bitis gabonica) until 1999. However, these two species are morphologically and genetically different from each other. Also, Bitis rhinoceros seems to grow a bit larger than Bitis gabonica, so we chose it for this video.