Snake Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ snakes from around the world — with family, range, size, habitat, and how to tell similar species apart.
Mandalay Spitting Cobra
A little-studied spitting cobra restricted to the dry central plains of Myanmar, described as a distinct species in the early 2000s.
Many-Banded Krait
A slender, black-and-white banded krait of East and Southeast Asia, well known in the herpetological literature.
Many-banded Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake named for its numerous narrow rings encircling the body.
Marsh Snake
A moderately common small elapid of moist eastern Australian habitats, often found near water and marshy ground.
Mitchell's Short-Tailed Snake
A small, dark-headed elapid with a notably short tail, found across dry woodland of southeastern Australia.
Monocled Cobra
A cobra of South and Southeast Asia distinguished by a single circular marking on its hood, resembling a monocle.
Mozambique Spitting Cobra
A medium-sized spitting cobra of southern and East Africa.
Mulga Snake
One of Australia's largest snakes, the Mulga Snake is a robust, widespread elapid of arid and semi-arid country.
Narrow-Banded Shovel-Nosed Snake
A small burrowing elapid characterized by narrow banding, found in arid interior regions of Australia.
New Guinea Small-Eyed Snake
A large, potent elapid found in New Guinea, notable for its small eyes and highly variable coloration.
Northern Brown Snake
A fast, alert elapid closely related to the western brown snake, common across arid and tropical northern Australia.
Northern Death Adder
A stout, ambush-hunting elapid with a viper-like body shape, found across tropical northern Australia and New Guinea.
Northern Small-Eyed Snake
A small, secretive nocturnal elapid of tropical northern Australia with a pale head and glossy dark body.
Nubian Spitting Cobra
A moderately sized spitting cobra of the Sahelian and Nile Valley regions of northeastern Africa, described to science relatively recently.
Nueces Coral Snake
A regional coral snake population from south Texas, closely related to the Texas coral snake.
Orange-Naped Snake
A slender elapid with a bold orange nape patch and black head, widespread across northern and eastern Australia.
Ornamental Snake
A small, patterned nocturnal elapid restricted to the Brigalow Belt of central Queensland, listed as vulnerable due to habitat loss.
Ornate Coral Snake
A brightly ringed coral snake of the western Amazon, named for its elaborately patterned body.
Painted Coral Snake
A vividly ringed coral snake of the South American Atlantic Forest, notable for its black snout and tricolor banding pattern.
Pale-Headed Snake
An arboreal elapid with a pale head, found in woodlands of eastern Australia and often sheltering under loose tree bark.
Papuan Taipan
A large taipan subspecies found in the grasslands and agricultural areas of southern Papua New Guinea.
Peninsula Brown Snake
A regionally restricted brown snake species found on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, once considered part of a broader brown snake complex.
Philippine Cobra
A cobra endemic to the northern Philippines.
Pygmy Copperhead
The smallest of the copperhead species, restricted to a limited range in South Australia including Kangaroo Island.
Pygmy Coral Snake
A small monadal-pattern coral snake of the dry Chaco and Cerrado regions of southern South America.
Pygmy Mulga Snake
A smaller relative of the mulga snake, restricted to the rocky woodlands of northwestern Australia.
Red River Krait
A recently described krait from the Red River basin of northern Vietnam and southern China, banded black and white.
Red Spitting Cobra
A small, brightly colored East African cobra, typically salmon-red or orange with a black throat band.
Red-Bellied Black Snake
A glossy black elapid with a vivid red or pink belly, common near waterways in eastern Australia.
Red-Headed Krait
A large, vividly colored krait of Southeast Asian rainforests, notable for its glossy black body, bright red or orange head and tail, and thin blue vertebral stripe.
Red-Naped Snake
A small elapid with a distinctive reddish patch on the back of the neck, found across eastern Australia.
Redtail Coral Snake
A slender coral snake distinguished by its black-and-white banded body ending in a strikingly reddish-orange tail.
Regal Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake widespread across Mexico's Gulf lowlands and the Yucatan Peninsula.
Ringed Brown Snake
One of the smallest members of the brown snake genus, distinguished by dark banding around its body, found in arid central and western Australia.
Rinkhals
A distinctive southern African elapid, related to but taxonomically separate from true cobras, known for feigning death and giving birth to live young.
Rough-Scaled Snake
A distinctive elapid with unusually keeled scales, found in rainforests and wet forests of eastern Australia.
Samar Cobra
A spitting cobra native to the central and southern Philippines, closely related to the Philippine cobra of Luzon but recognized as a distinct species.
Sauter's Coral Snake
A small, secretive coral snake endemic to Taiwan, named after the naturalist Hans Sauter, with reclusive, nocturnal habits.
Shield-Nosed Snake
A small, thick-bodied elapid of southern Africa named for its enlarged, shield-like rostral scale used for burrowing.
Sind Krait
A krait of the Indus Valley region, closely related to the Common Krait.
Small-spotted Coral Snake
A Mexican coral snake with tricolor banding along the Pacific lowlands.
Snouted Cobra
A large cobra of southern Africa's savannas, closely related to the Egyptian Cobra and named for its slightly upturned snout.
Solomon Islands Small-Eyed Snake
A rare, poorly known elapid endemic to the Solomon Islands, the sole species in its genus.
Sonoran Coral Snake
A small, brightly banded desert coral snake found in Arizona and northwestern Mexico, distinguished by its blunt black snout.
South American Coral Snake
A strikingly banded elapid of South American forests and wetlands, marked with the classic red-black-yellow triad pattern shared by many New World coral snakes.
Southern Coral Snake
A striking tricolor coral snake of central South America's woodlands and grasslands.
Southern Shovel-Nosed Snake
A small burrowing elapid from southern and western Australia with a distinctive banded pattern and a shovel-shaped snout for digging through sand.
Speckled Brown Snake
A medium-sized brown snake species from the interior of Queensland, named for the fine speckled pattern often present on its scales.