Snake Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ snakes from around the world — with family, range, size, habitat, and how to tell similar species apart.
Spotted Harlequin Snake
A small, brightly patterned southern African elapid with a slender body and boldly spotted coloration, resembling coral snake relatives.
Two-coloured Snake
A slender, burrowing African snake with a distinctive two-toned body pattern and a pointed, wedge-shaped snout adapted for digging.
Battersby's Green Snake
A little-known, slender green colubrid from Central and East African forests, closely related to other bush snakes.
Powdered Tree Snake
A slender, nocturnal African tree snake with a finely speckled, powdery-looking pattern and large eyes suited to night vision.
Glossy Marsh Snake
A small, glossy, water-associated colubrid found throughout sub-Saharan African wetlands, marshes, and streamside vegetation.
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.
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.
Cross-marked Sand Snake
A small, slender southern African sand snake named for the distinctive cross- or arrow-shaped marking on its head and neck.
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.
Peters' Thread Snake
A tiny, worm-like burrowing snake from Africa with smooth, glossy scales.
Cape Beaked Snake
A blunt-snouted, burrowing blind snake from southern Africa named for its distinctive beaked rostral scale.
Dwarf Beaked Snake
A tiny, patterned nocturnal snake of arid southern Africa, known for its spotted body and slightly upturned snout.
Algerian Whip Snake
A slender, fast-moving colubrid native to the Maghreb region of North Africa, closely related to the horseshoe whip snake.
Dwarf Sand Snake
One of the smallest members of the Psammophis genus, this diminutive sand snake inhabits savanna and grassland regions of southern and central Africa.
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.
Short-snouted Grass Snake
A grassland-dwelling sand snake of southern Africa recognized by its relatively short snout and active daytime habits.
Shield-Nosed Snake
A small, thick-bodied elapid of southern Africa named for its enlarged, shield-like rostral scale used for burrowing.
Cape Coral Snake
A small, brightly banded burrowing elapid of arid southern Africa, known for its bold red-and-black or coral pattern.
Stripe-bellied Sand Snake
A fast, alert diurnal sand snake widespread across savanna Africa, distinguished by dark stripes running along its yellowish underside.
Horseshoe Whip Snake
A slender, patterned colubrid named for the horseshoe-shaped marking on the back of its head, found across southern Iberia and North Africa.
Fork-marked Sand Snake
A slender arid-zone sand snake named for the fork-shaped marking on its head, found across the dry western landscapes of southern Africa.
Yellow-bellied House Snake
A small South African house snake distinguished by its bright yellow underside contrasting with a darker back.
Afro-Asian Sand Snake
A slim, fast-moving diurnal sand snake distributed across arid regions of Africa and Asia.
Semi-ornate Sand Snake
A fast, slender, striped sand snake found across dry savanna and semi-desert regions of Africa.