Snake Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ snakes from around the world — with family, range, size, habitat, and how to tell similar species apart.
Shield-Nosed Snake
A small, thick-bodied elapid of southern Africa named for its enlarged, shield-like rostral scale used for burrowing.
Spotted Wolf Snake
A small, spotted South Asian wolf snake with enlarged front teeth used to grip prey.
Santander Coral Snake
A regional tricolor coral snake named for the Santander Department of Colombia where it was first described.
Rufous Beaked Snake
A fast-moving, ground-dwelling African snake named for its distinctive upturned, beak-like snout used for burrowing and probing after prey.
Elegant Sea Snake
A large, robust sea snake native to Australian waters, patterned with broad dark bands that fade with age, often found in reef and estuarine habitats.
Russell's Kukri Snake
A small kukri snake of the Indian subcontinent named after herpetologist Patrick Russell.
Liner's Garter Snake
A montane garter snake from the highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico, named after herpetologist Ernest Liner.
Pacific Gopher Snake
A large, heavy-bodied colubrid of the Pacific coast known for its loud hiss and tail-vibrating display that often leads to mistaken identity as a rattlesnake.
Cope's Garter Snake
A highland garter snake from the Valley of Mexico, named after the prolific 19th-century naturalist Edward Drinker Cope.
Carib Coral Snake
A coral snake of Trinidad and northern Venezuela, marked with bold tricolor rings along its slender body.
Japanese Coral Snake
A small, secretive coral snake endemic to the subtropical Ryukyu Islands of Japan, patterned with reddish-brown bands.
Brown Vine Snake
A slender, brown-colored vine snake with a pointed snout, native to the Western Ghats, closely related to the more familiar green vine snakes.
Western Whip Snake
A fast, alert colubrid of southern Europe known for its bold yellow-and-black pattern.
Eastern Milk Snake
A boldly patterned snake with a reddish-brown blotched pattern, sometimes confused with other species.
Bocourt's Coral Snake
A vividly ringed true coral snake native to the Pacific lowlands of Colombia and Ecuador.
Indian Smooth Snake
A small, secretive colubrid found across drier parts of India, rarely encountered due to its fossorial habits.
Florida Pine Snake
A large, pale, burrowing constrictor of Florida's sandhills, associated closely with gopher tortoise burrows.
Green Vine Snake
A slender, bright green colubrid of the Indian subcontinent with an elongated pointed snout, blending seamlessly into foliage.
Uruguayan Coral Snake
A small coral snake of the temperate grasslands and forests of Uruguay and neighboring regions.
Oaxacan Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake restricted to montane and foothill forests of Oaxaca, Mexico.
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.
Neotropical Bird Snake
A fast, alert diurnal snake found from Central America to the Amazon, named for its habit of raiding bird nests for eggs and nestlings.
Spotted Whip Snake
A fast, alert colubrid with a row of dark spots or blotches along its back, common in arid and semi-arid habitats across Central and Southwest Asia.
Yellowbelly Water Snake
A plain, dark-backed water snake subspecies with a pale yellow belly, common in bottomland wetlands of the Mississippi Valley and Gulf states.