Snake Identifier

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.

Variegated Wolf Snake

Variegated Wolf Snake

A larger Southeast Asian wolf snake with variable banding that changes with age, harmless to humans despite krait-like appearance.

Saddled Leaf-Nosed Snake

Saddled Leaf-Nosed Snake

A larger relative of the Spotted Leaf-Nosed Snake bearing bold, saddle-shaped brown blotches along its back.

Paradise Flying Snake

Paradise Flying Snake

A slender, brilliantly patterned colubrid famed for its ability to glide from tree to tree, marked with black scales speckled in green, yellow, and red.

Argentine Rainbow Boa

Argentine Rainbow Boa

A southern member of the rainbow boa group native to drier habitats of Argentina and neighboring countries, notable for its iridescent scales and relatively subdued coloration.

Painted Bronzeback

Painted Bronzeback

A brightly patterned, agile tree snake of Southeast Asia, named for the bold black-and-cream striping revealed between its scales when alarmed.

Pacific Gopher Snake

Pacific Gopher Snake

A large, heavy-bodied colubrid of the Pacific coast known for its loud hiss and defensive tail-vibrating display that often leads to mistaken identity as a rattlesnake.

Horned Sea Snake

A distinctive sea snake covered in small spiny scale projections, especially around the head, giving it a rough, thorny appearance unique among sea snakes.

Eastern Montpellier Snake

Eastern Montpellier Snake

A large, fast-moving rear-fanged snake known for raising its head cobra-like when threatened, found across the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.

Mangrove Snake

Mangrove Snake

A large, glossy black colubrid ringed with bright yellow bands, common in Southeast Asian wetlands and mangroves, with mild rear-fanged venom of little concern to humans.

Checkered Keelback

Checkered Keelback

One of the most common water-associated snakes in Asia, recognized by its checkerboard pattern and strongly keeled scales, frequently seen near rice paddies and ponds.

Death Adder

Death Adder

A short, ambush-hunting elapid that resembles a viper in shape and behavior despite belonging to the cobra family.

Red-Headed Krait

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 Adder

Red Adder

A recently described small viper with reddish coloration, endemic to mountain ranges of South Africa's Cape region.

Southern Bark Snake

A small, viper-mimicking African colubrid with a zigzag dorsal pattern, mildly venomous but harmless to humans.

Boomslang

Boomslang

A slender, large-eyed African tree snake famous for its potent hemotoxic venom delivered through rear fangs, making it one of the few colubrids capable of causing severe or fatal envenomation in humans.

Chinese Sea Snake

Chinese Sea Snake

One of the larger and more widely distributed true sea snakes, recognizable by its bold black and yellow-green banding, ranging across coastal Asian waters.

Rhombic Night Adder

Rhombic Night Adder

A widespread African viper named for the diamond-shaped blotches along its back, with comparatively mild venom.

Bardick

Bardick

A stout, short-tailed elapid of southern Australia's heath and mallee, notable for its viper-like ambush hunting style.

Northern Death Adder

Northern Death Adder

A stout, ambush-hunting elapid with a viper-like body shape, found across tropical northern Australia and New Guinea.

Plain Mountain Adder

A subtly patterned, rarely seen small viper endemic to high-altitude grasslands of South Africa's Eastern Cape.

Common Cat Snake

Common Cat Snake

A slender, patterned nocturnal snake found across the Indian subcontinent, often mistaken for a young viper due to its triangular head and vertical pupils.

Common Death Adder

Common Death Adder

A short, thick-bodied ambush-predator elapid that mimics a viper in body shape and hunting style, using a worm-like tail lure to attract prey.

Puff Adder

Puff Adder

A widespread, thick-bodied African viper responsible for more snakebite incidents than any other African species, largely due to its abundance and camouflage.

Common Puff Adder

Common Puff Adder

A widespread and heavy-bodied African viper responsible for more snakebite fatalities than any other African species, due to its abundance and cryptic camouflage.