The most beautiful snake (in my opinion)

The Gaboon adder or aptly named Butterfly viper (Bitis gabonica)

Photo by Thomas Eimermacher

With pinks and purples, beiges and browns this is truly a stunning snake to behold.

...and in leaves it amazing how well these colors and patterns provide camouflage.

Of all the snakes I have kept over the years (and there have been many hundreds) I have never had one of these.

They are rare, hard to find and require the correct permits to keep where I am from but the real reason I never mad the effort to acquire one for my reptile collection was the fact that they posses the longest fangs in the snake kingdom. Some over 2 inches... 5cm and a very decent venom to go along with that set of hypodermic needles.

I learned early on that keepers of snakes get bitten and so I never kept any deadly specimens for longer than was necessary.

There is an even larger sub-species that comes from West Africa and this is the one typically found in the pet trade.