Enjoy nature while hiking and maybe see an animal or two. In Italy, a man would have rather foregone this encounter.
Cosenza – Many people like to spend their holidays in southern Italy. The coast of Calabria is just too beautiful, but you can also switch off from everyday life in the Sila Mountains, as long as you don’t come across any hell adders. The Sila National Park is located in the center of Calabria and invites you to hike along mountain lakes, over hills or through forests. It is not for nothing that the park is called the “Green Lung of Calabria”, but dangerous animals also live here, as one hiker found out.
Italian Sila National Park: Hiker bitten by hell viper – at first he thought it was harmless
For German holidaymakers, the national park is best reached via Lamezia Terme Airport, which receives many beach holidaymakers in southern Italy every year. The mountains there reach almost 2000 metres high – and at 1400 metres, a hiker got a bad deal, as South Tyrol News reported. The man was unsuspectingly on his tour when he felt a twinge in his calf. In northern Italy, a mayor also warned of a plague of snakes and at a tourist lake in South Tyrol, the number of snakes is “increasing every year”.
It turned out to be a bite from a black snake, and burning pain followed shortly afterwards. As the portal further describes, the man first thought it was a “black snake”, a harmless snake. But in the emergency room, the doctors were shocked and surprised. An expert even had to be called. The man was treated by a Hell Viper bitten, as it eventually turned out.
Hiker out of danger after being taken to emergency room – Italians speak of “unique case”
Hell Viper
The Hell’s Adder is a single-coloured viper. The black animal, which is said to have been the same colour in Sila National Park, is more common in mountainous areas. The melanistic colouring is due to heredity or external influences such as sunlight, humidity or temperatures.
Adders are considered to be very shy and they only bite when they feel extremely threatened. It is rare for a person to die from a poisonous bite from a snake, as the dose is too small. But in Germany too, an 81-year-old woman died on the island of Rügen in 2004 after being bitten by a snake.
He was immediately given an antidote and had to stay in hospital for safety reasons. The hiker is also said to be out of danger. The portal ecodellojonio.it speaks of a “unique case”. According to the expert Gianluca Congi, who works with specialists in the field, the type of injury is reminiscent of the snake that was formerly called the “Black Sila Viper”. It warns that hikers should be careful where they step or what they touch.
Poisonous snakes can be found not only in southern Italy, but also on Lake Garda, one of the most popular destinations for southern Germans. (ank)
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