Indonesian Autumn Adder?

Well, here is a photo of a snake that Deb H sent me back in November (during the right season):

I found it to be absolutely awesome, so much so that I had to wonder if it was a Photoshop job. I kind of figured I would have seen this particular snake on some nature show or another before then, but I never had seen one before, so I did a little checking. Here is another version of what appears to be the same photo that has been flipped around and had the coloring changed:

 

Nice snake in either photo but I still figured it was so striking in yellow that I certainly would have remembered having seen one before, at least on television or in a magazine. Yet, it was unfamiliar to me and still extremely awesome looking - almost too good to be true. So, I checked more, this time using the scientific name that accompanied the second picture on the site where I had found it.

 

An Internet search of the name Atheris hispida revealed several online photos of that species and revealed its common name as the African Hairy Bush Viper . Most of them were markedly different from either of the above two photos in that the colors shown in the other photos mostly were nowhere nearly as vivid. Still though, what I came up with were some pretty nice photos of a pretty impressive looking snake but also that, by my guess, were probably closer to reality. One example of what I found is shown below:

 

 

Still a very impressive looking snake but the coloration and markings are somewhat different than the other two. So what is the bottom line, are the other two Photoshop jobs and the last one the real McCoy or are they all the genuine item? I cannot answer that with any certainty, so if anyone knows for sure, please leave a comment about it. More info on this species can be found here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheris_hispida

 

and here:

 

http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Atheris&species=hispida (the pic at this link looks a lot like the snake in photos 1 & 2 but with a more washed out appearance).

 

Once again, my hat is doffed to Deb H for another submission for the blog.

 

All the best,

Glenn B