Bitis rhinoceros
Bitis rhinoceros is a viper species endemic to West Africa. Like all vipers, it is venomous. It can be easily distinguished from the closely related species "B. gabonica" by the presence of two large nasal "horns". Description. "Bitis rhinoceros" has a distinctive set of enlarged nasal scales that look like a pair of horns on its nose. This is a characteristic that it shares with a close relative, "B. nasicornis". However, "B. nasicornis" has a brighter color pattern and a narrower head. "B. gabonica" has no such enlarged nasal "horns", and is overall somewhat smaller than "B. rhinoceros . Also, in B. g. gabonica", the dark triangular marking leading back from the eye towards the angle of the mouth is divided. In "B. rhinoceros" it is not. Geographic range. "B. rhinoceros" is found in West Africa from Togo west to Guinea and possibly to Guinea-Bissau, including the intervening countries (Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone). According to Spawls & Branch (1995), Ghana and Togo are at the eastern limit of the range of this subspecies, and they begin to intergrade here with "B. gabonica". The distribution map they provide indicates that the general range for "B. rhinoceros" does  not include Togo, but that there has been at least one report of a specimen found there. Togo, together with Benin and at least eastern Ghana, are part of a larger region known as the Dahomey Gap; a relatively dry region that separates the rainforests of West Africa from those of Central Africa.