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.
Indian Cobra
A highly venomous cobra of the Indian subcontinent, famous for the spectacle-like marking on its hood and its role in traditional snake charming.
Nose-Horned Viper Ammodytes
Europe's most venomous snake, easily identified by a distinctive soft horn-like scale projecting from the tip of its snout.
Malayan Krait
A slender, black-and-white banded krait of Southeast Asia, closely resembling the many-banded krait and regarded as one of the region's most medically significant snakes.
Reticulated Centipede-eater
A small, secretive African snake specialized for hunting centipedes, with a fine reticulated pattern and a mild venom adapted to subdue its arthropod prey.
Neotropical Snail-eater
An alternate common name for the widespread snail-specialist snake found across humid Neotropical forests, known for its slender build and molluscivorous diet.
Round Island Keel-Scaled Boa
The last surviving species of an ancient, highly endangered snake family, found only on Round Island near Mauritius and rescued through conservation breeding.
Round Island Boa
A now likely-extinct burrowing boa once endemic to Round Island near Mauritius, notable for its unique jaw structure among snakes.
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.
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.
Western Massasauga
A small prairie rattlesnake with a lighter, more contrasting blotched pattern than its eastern relative.
Pit Viper
A diverse group of vipers defined by heat-sensing facial pits, including rattlesnakes, copperheads, and Asian bamboo vipers.
Japanese Mamushi
A small but medically significant pit viper widespread across Japan, responsible for the majority of the country's venomous snakebites.
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
A widespread and heavy-bodied African viper responsible for more snakebite fatalities than any other African species, due to its abundance and cryptic camouflage.
Common Lancehead
The most widespread lancehead of the Amazon Basin, a major cause of snakebite envenomation across tropical South America.
Terciopelo
A large, medically significant pit viper responsible for the majority of snakebite incidents across its Central American range.
Brazilian Lancehead
A medium to large lancehead pit viper of central Brazil's savanna, responsible for a significant number of snakebite cases in the region.
Fer-de-lance
A large, fast-moving, and medically significant pit viper responsible for the majority of snakebite incidents across much of its Central American range.
Saw-Scaled Viper
A small but highly venomous viper found across the Middle East and South Asia, notable for producing a distinctive rasping sound by rubbing its scales together and responsible for a large number of snakebite incidents in its range.
Malayan Pit Viper
A medium-sized, heavy-bodied pit viper of Southeast Asia known for its distinctive triangular head markings and its role in significant numbers of snakebite cases in the region.
Common Krait
A highly venomous nocturnal elapid of South Asia, glossy blue-black with faint white crossbands, responsible for a significant number of snakebite cases in the region.