Reproduction of the Ethiopian Mountain Adder, Bitis parviocula Böhme, 1976 (Reptilia Viperidae), at ZSL London Zoo

Abstract. The Ethiopian Mountain Adder, Bitis parviocula Böhme, 1976, is an endangered Ethiopian endemic, confirmed to occur in the montane forest of the southwest (Böhme, 1977; Spawls, 2021), with reported collection localities ranging from 1700–2800 m in elevation (Largen and Rasmussen, 1993). Its body colours and patterns are highly contrasting and likely facilitate camouflage (Spinner et al., 2013) in the richly structured ground habitat this species is presumed to inhabit. Limited numbers of museum specimens and minimal reliable field data are available for reference (e.g., Gower et al., 2016; Petrilla et al., 2021), and little is known about the ecology of B. parviocula. The species has been kept in captivity since at least 2007 (Sánchez et al., 2011) and captive reproduction has been briefly summarised (Maritz et al., 2013), but detailed information regarding captive management, reproductive biology, and breeding is lacking. The present work describes the successful reproduction of B. parviocula at ZSL London Zoo, with detail on husbandry and animal behaviour throughout the preceding years.