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.

Equatorial Spitting Cobra

Equatorial Spitting Cobra

A predominantly black or dark-colored spitting cobra found across the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

Javan Spitting Cobra

Javan Spitting Cobra

A dark, glossy spitting cobra endemic to Java, Bali, and nearby Indonesian islands, closely related to the equatorial spitting cobra.

Red Spitting Cobra

Red Spitting Cobra

A small, brightly colored East African cobra, typically salmon-red or orange with a black throat band, well known for its accurate venom-spitting defense.

Gold's Tree Cobra

Gold's Tree Cobra

A large, slender, highly arboreal forest cobra of Central and West Africa, known for its glossy dark coloration and agile climbing ability.

Black Desert Cobra

Black Desert Cobra

A dangerously venomous, uniformly black desert elapid of the Middle East and North Africa, adapted to arid and sandy habitats.

Congo Water Cobra

A slender, semi-aquatic cobra of the central Congo River system, closely related to the banded water cobra but generally smaller and less boldly patterned.

Banded Water Cobra

Banded Water Cobra

A large, semi-aquatic African cobra of the Congo Basin, distinguished by bold banding and a strongly aquatic lifestyle centered on rivers and lakes.

False Water Cobra

False Water Cobra

A large, aquatic South American colubrid capable of flattening its neck into a cobra-like hood when threatened.

Storm's Water Cobra

Storm's Water Cobra

A large, strongly aquatic cobra of Central African rivers and lakes, named for herpetologist Storm and adapted for a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

Indochinese Spitting Cobra

Indochinese Spitting Cobra

A mottled gray-and-black spitting cobra common across mainland Southeast Asia, frequently encountered in and around rural villages.

Mozambique Spitting Cobra

Mozambique Spitting Cobra

A medium-sized, highly venomous spitting cobra of southern and East Africa, capable of accurately spraying venom toward a threat's eyes.

Nubian Spitting Cobra

Nubian Spitting Cobra

A moderately sized spitting cobra of the Sahelian and Nile Valley regions of northeastern Africa, described to science relatively recently.

Black Spitting Cobra

Black Spitting Cobra

A uniformly glossy black spitting cobra found in the arid western regions of southern Africa, once considered a color form of the zebra spitting cobra.

Mandalay Spitting Cobra

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.

Black Tree Cobra

A slender, arboreal West African forest cobra closely related to Gold's tree cobra, marked by its uniform blackish coloration.

Black-Necked Spitting Cobra

Black-Necked Spitting Cobra

A widespread and highly adaptable African cobra famous for accurately spraying venom from its fangs as a defensive measure.

West African Brown Spitting Cobra

West African Brown Spitting Cobra

A small brown spitting cobra of the West African Sahel, notable for having a proportionally high venom toxicity for its size.

Many-Banded Krait

Many-Banded Krait

A slender, black-and-white banded krait of East and Southeast Asia with venom among the most potent of any land snake, well known in the herpetological and medical literature.

Stejneger's Pit Viper

Stejneger's Pit Viper

A widespread bright green arboreal pit viper common in bamboo forests and shrublands of East and Southeast Asia.

Sundevall's Garter Snake

Sundevall's Garter Snake

A small, secretive African garter snake with a banded pattern, related to cobras but with weak venom and a reclusive, burrowing lifestyle.

Hundred-Pace Viper

Hundred-Pace Viper

A distinctively patterned, medically important pit viper of southern China and Taiwan, popularly named for the exaggerated belief a bite causes death within a hundred paces.

Cape Coral Snake

Cape Coral Snake

A small, brightly banded burrowing elapid of arid southern Africa, known for its bold red-and-black or coral pattern.

Gunther's Garter Snake

A small, secretive East African garter snake, part of the elapid genus Elapsoidea, with weak venom and burrowing habits.

Moila Snake

Moila Snake

A robust, fast-moving desert snake of North Africa and Arabia, known as the 'false cobra' for its hood-flattening threat display.