Snake Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ snakes from around the world — with family, range, size, habitat, and how to tell similar species apart.
American Pipe Snake
A striking red-and-black banded burrowing snake from the Amazon Basin, often mistaken for a coral snake.
Barbados Threadsnake
One of the smallest known snake species in the world, endemic to the small Caribbean island of Barbados and rediscovered in the early 2000s.
Beaked Blind Snake
A robust African blind snake with a distinctive hardened, beak-like snout adapted for digging.
Bibron's Blind Snake
A small, worm-like burrowing blind snake widespread across southern and eastern Africa, with vestigial eyes and a smooth, glossy body.
Bibron's Burrowing Asp
A secretive African burrowing snake known for its unusual sideways stabbing strike delivered without opening its mouth wide.
Black File Snake
A small, dark, heavily keeled fossorial snake from East Asian forests, named for the rasp-like texture of its scales.
Black-headed Centipede-eater
A small, secretive African burrower named for its glossy black head and its diet of centipedes.
Brahminy Blind Snake
A tiny, worm-like blind snake and the only known snake species that reproduces entirely by parthenogenesis, spreading globally in nursery soil.
Braminy Blind Snake
The world's most widely distributed snake species, a tiny, all-female burrower often mistaken for an earthworm and spread globally via potted plants.
Cape Beaked Snake
A blunt-snouted, burrowing blind snake from southern Africa named for its distinctive beaked rostral scale.
Cape Centipede-Eater
A small, secretive southern African snake that specializes in hunting centipedes.
Cape Thread Snake
A tiny, glossy burrowing thread snake of southern Africa that lives almost entirely underground, feeding on ants and termites.
Ceylon Pipe Snake
A cylindrical, glossy burrowing snake endemic to Sri Lanka, notable for its bright red and black underside used in displays.
Common Mole Snake
A large, powerfully built African snake specialized for hunting burrowing rodents, common across a wide range of southern African habitats.
Common Purple-glossed Snake
A glossy, burrowing African snake with an iridescent purplish sheen, feeding largely on other snakes and reptiles beneath the soil surface.
Coral Pipe Snake
A brightly banded red-and-black burrowing snake from the Amazon, resembling coral snakes in pattern.
Desert Blind Snake
A tiny, worm-like burrowing snake of the American Southwest deserts with vestigial eyes hidden beneath translucent scales.
Diard's Blind Snake
One of the larger blind snakes in Asia, a stout burrowing species found in forest soils and leaf litter.
Dog-Faced Water Snake
A common, blunt-snouted brackish-water snake of Asian estuaries and mangroves, named for its somewhat dog-like facial profile.
Dwarf Beaked Snake
A tiny, patterned nocturnal snake of arid southern Africa, known for its spotted body and slightly upturned snout.
Elephant Trunk Snake
A wholly aquatic snake with loose, baggy, wrinkled skin covered in tiny rough scales, giving it a texture reminiscent of an elephant's trunk.
Elliot's Shieldtail
A small, burrowing shieldtail snake endemic to the Western Ghats, named for its distinctive hardened tail tip used for burrowing.
European Blind Snake
A small, worm-like burrowing snake with vestigial eyes, found across the Balkans and eastern Mediterranean, spending most of its life hidden underground.
Flowerpot Snake
The world's most widely distributed snake species, a tiny worm-like blind snake spread globally through the potted plant trade.
Java File Snake
A fully aquatic file snake covered in rough, granular scales, found in the rivers and estuaries of Java and the surrounding Southeast Asian region.
Kerala Shieldtail Snake
A regionally restricted burrowing snake from the state of Kerala in southern India, known for its reddish-marked underside.
Large Shieldtail Snake
One of the larger species within the shieldtail snake family, endemic to the moist forests of India's Western Ghats.
Long-Nosed Worm Snake
A small, worm-like blind snake found in the leaf litter and soil of Trinidad and adjacent parts of northern South America.
Marine File Snake
A small, fully aquatic file snake with banded coloration that lives in coastal marine waters, estuaries, and mangroves across the Indo-Pacific.
Mexican Burrowing Python
A rare, primitive burrowing snake from Mexico and Central America, the sole member of its own family and a close relative of true pythons.
Mole Viper
A small, cylindrical, burrowing snake with a distinctive sideways striking motion, found across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Nilgiri Shieldtail Snake
A montane burrowing snake endemic to the Nilgiri Hills of southern India, adapted to cool, high-elevation forest soils.
Peters' Thread Snake
A tiny, worm-like burrowing snake from Africa with smooth, glossy scales.
Red Pipe Snake
A glossy, burrowing pipe snake of Southeast Asia that flattens and raises its bright red-and-black banded tail to mimic a coral snake when threatened.
Red-Tailed Pipe Snake
A widespread Southeast Asian burrowing snake with a glossy black body and a vividly banded red-and-black tail used in threat display.
Reticulated Centipede-eater
A small, secretive African snake specialized for hunting centipedes, with a fine reticulated pattern.
Schlegel's Beaked Blind Snake
One of the largest blind snakes in the world, notable for its hardened, beak-like snout used to dig through hard African soils.
Slender Blind Snake
A tiny, worm-like blind snake often mistaken for an earthworm, spread worldwide through the potted plant trade.
Sunbeam Snake
A glossy, iridescent burrowing snake of Southeast Asia named for the rainbow sheen its smooth scales produce in sunlight.
Texas Blind Snake
A tiny, worm-like burrowing snake of Texas and northern Mexico, occasionally found in the nests of ants and termites that it feeds on.
Texas Threadsnake
A small, glossy, burrowing thread snake native to Texas and adjacent Mexico, spending nearly its entire life underground feeding on ant and termite brood.
Two-coloured Snake
A slender, burrowing African snake with a distinctive two-toned body pattern and a pointed, wedge-shaped snout adapted for digging.
Western Blind Snake
A small, glossy, worm-like burrowing snake widespread across the deserts of the American Southwest, feeding almost exclusively on ants and termites.
Dwarf File Snake
A small African file snake with rough, keeled scales, named for its diminutive size relative to its larger relatives.
Dwarf Pipe Snake
A tiny, rarely seen fossorial snake from Southeast Asia representing one of the most poorly known snake families in the world.
Ornate Shieldtail Snake
A small, glossy burrowing snake from the Western Ghats of India with a distinctive hardened, shield-like tail tip.