Snake Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ snakes from around the world — with venomous status, family, range, size, habitat, and how to tell look-alikes apart.
Glossy Marsh Snake
A small, glossy, water-associated colubrid found throughout sub-Saharan African wetlands, marshes, and streamside vegetation.
Mimic False Coral
A striking red, black, and cream banded colubrid of South America that mimics venomous coral snakes for protection.
Black Swamp Snake
A small, glossy black semi-aquatic snake with a bright red-orange belly, found in southeastern wetlands.
Common Bronzeback
A slender, fast-moving, day-active tree snake with a bronze-toned back, common across gardens and forest edges of the Indian subcontinent.
Water Moccasin
A heavy-bodied semi-aquatic pit viper of the southeastern US, named for the white lining of its mouth displayed as a threat.
False Coral Snake
A slender Neotropical snake whose bold red, black, and cream banding mimics dangerous coral snakes, deterring predators despite being harmless to people.
Bengal Sand Boa
A stout, burrowing South Asian boa with rough, patterned scales, often mistaken for a venomous species due to its blunt tail.
Indian Python
A large, non-venomous python native to the Indian subcontinent, one of the largest snakes in Asia and a species of conservation concern.
Hemprich's Coral Snake
A monadal-patterned coral snake of the Amazon rainforest, named after the German naturalist Wilhelm Hemprich.
Brown-Spotted Pit Viper
A slender brown pit viper with a chain of dark blotches, found across a wide swath of South and East Asia.
Transcaucasian Sand Viper
A desert-dwelling viper of the Caucasus and Iranian plateau, closely related to the false horned vipers.
Egyptian Sand Boa
A stout, burrowing boa of arid African and Middle Eastern regions, easily recognized by its blunt tail, small eyes set high on the head, and habit of ambushing prey from beneath the sand.
Aruba Island Rattlesnake
A critically endangered rattlesnake found only on the island of Aruba, restricted to a small area of remaining dry forest habitat.
Yellow-tailed Cribo
A large, powerful South American colubrid related to indigo snakes, known for its glossy scales and impressive length.
Nubian Spitting Cobra
A moderately sized spitting cobra of the Sahelian and Nile Valley regions of northeastern Africa, described to science relatively recently.
Plains Black-Headed Snake
A small, secretive prairie snake with a plain tan body capped by a distinct black head and neck collar.
Trans-Pecos Rat Snake
A slender desert rat snake with a distinctive H-shaped or blotched pattern, found in rocky canyons and limestone hills of the Chihuahuan Desert.
Levantine Viper
One of the largest and most medically important vipers of the Middle East and Central Asia, capable of delivering a substantial venom dose.
Lesser Black Krait
A glossy black krait of the eastern Indian subcontinent and Himalayan foothills, dangerously venomous and prone to entering rural dwellings at night.
Great Basin Gopher Snake
A high-desert gopher snake subspecies adapted to the cold winters and arid summers of the Great Basin, valued as an effective rodent predator.
Indigo Snake
The longest native snake in the United States, glossy blue-black and known for its calm demeanor.
Speckled Racer
A fast, alert colubrid with a striking pattern of pale speckles or crossbars on a dark, glossy body.
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.
Carpet Python
A widespread, non-venomous python found throughout Australia and New Guinea, highly variable in pattern and color across its many subspecies.
Plains Garter Snake
A grassland garter snake of the central Plains, typically showing a bright orange or yellow dorsal stripe on a dark body.
Long-nosed Rattlesnake
A regionally used name sometimes applied to slender-snouted rattlesnakes of arid terrain, most often referring to the tiger rattlesnake.
Fan Si Pan Horned Pit Viper
A stout mountain pit viper with small hornlike scales above the eyes, found in high-elevation forests of the Fan Si Pan region.
Black Milk Snake
A milk snake subspecies notable for becoming almost entirely glossy black as it matures, losing its juvenile banded pattern.
White-lipped Keelback
A small forest-floor colubrid of Southeast Asia distinguished by its contrasting white upper lip scales.
Yapen Green Tree Python
An island locality of the green tree python from Yapen Island in Cenderawasih Bay off the northern coast of New Guinea.
Diard's Blind Snake
One of the larger blind snakes in Asia, a stout burrowing species found in forest soils and leaf litter.
Yunnan Pit Viper
A green pit viper native to Yunnan Province in southern China and adjacent regions.
Striped Coral Snake
One of the largest and most widespread South American coral snakes, boldly banded in red, black, and white, with medically significant neurotoxic venom.
Southern Durango Spotted Garter Snake
A montane garter snake from the pine-oak forests of southern Durango, distinguished by a spotted rather than striped dorsal pattern.
Saddled Leaf-Nosed Snake
A larger relative of the Spotted Leaf-Nosed Snake bearing bold, saddle-shaped brown blotches along its back.
Taylor's Cantil
A distinctively patterned pit viper of northeastern Mexico, notable for its bright orange facial stripes.
Black-Necked Spitting Cobra
A widespread and highly adaptable African cobra famous for accurately spraying venom from its fangs as a defensive measure.
Garter Snake
One of North America's most widespread and familiar snakes, easily recognized by its longitudinal stripes and adaptability to varied habitats.
Inland Taipan
A highly venomous but reclusive Australian elapid of remote arid regions, often cited for its extremely potent venom.
Desert Horned Viper
An iconic desert viper of the Sahara and Arabian Peninsula, easily recognized by the small hornlike scales often present above its eyes.
Common Kukri Snake
A small, harmless banded colubrid named for its curved, kukri-knife-shaped rear teeth used to slit open reptile eggs.
Broad-banded Copperhead
A copperhead species with wide, saddle-shaped crossbands, common in woodlands and rocky habitats of the south-central states.
Kirtland's Snake
A small, secretive wetland snake with a reddish belly marked by bold black spots, now rare across much of its midwestern range.
Northern White-Lipped Python
The northern representative of the white-lipped python complex, found across the lowlands of northern New Guinea.
Middle American Gopher Snake
A Mexican highland gopher snake species with a striking pattern of dark blotches on a pale background, found in the central plateau region.
Ceylon Pipe Snake
A cylindrical, glossy burrowing snake endemic to Sri Lanka, notable for its bright red and black underside used in defensive displays.
Milos Viper
A rare, island-endemic viper found only on Milos and a few nearby Cycladic islands in Greece, notable for its restricted range and conservation concern.
Brazilian Rainbow Boa
A vividly patterned constrictor famous for the iridescent sheen of its scales, which produces a rainbow-like shimmer in direct sunlight.