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.
Anchieta's Cobra
A large, adaptable cobra of south-central Africa, closely related to the Egyptian and forest cobras and capable of considerable size.
Little Whip Snake
One of Australia's smallest snakes, a slender nocturnal elapid found in grassland and woodland of the southeast.
Choco Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake of the biodiverse Choco rainforest region on Colombia's Pacific coast.
South American Coral Snake
A strikingly banded elapid of South American forests and wetlands, marked with the classic red-black-yellow triad pattern shared by many New World coral snakes.
De Vis' Banded Snake
A small, secretive elapid of inland eastern Australia's floodplains, closely related to the Ornamental Snake.
Pale-Headed Snake
An arboreal elapid with a pale head, found in woodlands of eastern Australia and often sheltering under loose tree bark.
Mitchell's Short-Tailed Snake
A small, dark-headed elapid with a notably short tail, found across dry woodland of southeastern Australia.
Yellow-Faced Whipsnake
A slender, fast-moving Australian elapid named for the distinctive yellowish marking on its face, active by day and generally shy toward humans.
Black Mamba
One of the world's most feared snakes, the black mamba is Africa's longest venomous snake, renowned for its speed, potent neurotoxic venom, and the black interior of its mouth.
Solomon Islands Small-Eyed Snake
A rare, poorly known elapid endemic to the Solomon Islands, the sole species in its genus.
Javan Spitting Cobra
A dark, glossy spitting cobra endemic to Java, Bali, and nearby Indonesian islands, closely related to the equatorial spitting cobra.
Philippine Cobra
A highly venomous cobra endemic to the northern Philippines, notable for its potent venom relative to its comparatively modest size.
Northern Death Adder
A stout, ambush-hunting elapid with a viper-like body shape, found across tropical northern Australia and New Guinea.
Hemprich's Coral Snake
A monadal-patterned coral snake of the Amazon rainforest, named after the German naturalist Wilhelm Hemprich.
Argentine Coral Snake
A widely used common name for a monadal-patterned coral snake found across the drier regions of southern South America.
Nubian Spitting Cobra
A moderately sized spitting cobra of the Sahelian and Nile Valley regions of northeastern Africa, described to science relatively recently.
Black-Naped Snake
A slender burrowing elapid identified by a distinctive black patch on the back of the neck, native to southern Australia.
Lesser Black Krait
A glossy black krait of the eastern Indian subcontinent and Himalayan foothills, dangerously venomous and prone to entering rural dwellings at night.
West Mexican Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake restricted to the Pacific coastal lowlands and foothills of western Mexico.
Bibron's Coral Snake
A small, elusive coral snake endemic to the Western Ghats of southern India, named after French herpetologist Gabriel Bibron.
Striped Coral Snake
One of the largest and most widespread South American coral snakes, boldly banded in red, black, and white, with medically significant neurotoxic venom.
Black-Necked Spitting Cobra
A widespread and highly adaptable African cobra famous for accurately spraying venom from its fangs as a defensive measure.
Inland Taipan
A highly venomous but reclusive Australian elapid of remote arid regions, often cited for its extremely potent venom.
Cape Tiger Snake
A regional form of tiger snake found on offshore islands and coastal areas, often smaller-bodied than mainland populations.
Pygmy Mulga Snake
A smaller relative of the mulga snake, restricted to the rocky woodlands of northwestern Australia.
Desert Cobra
A glossy black, primarily nocturnal elapid found in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, considered venomous and potentially dangerous to humans.
Fitzinger's Coral Snake
A South American coral snake named in honor of naturalist Leopold Fitzinger, marked with tricolor rings.
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.
Peninsula Brown Snake
A regionally restricted brown snake species found on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, once considered part of a broader brown snake complex.
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.
Andaman Krait
An island-endemic krait found only in the Andaman archipelago, banded in black and white, and considered dangerously venomous like its mainland relatives.
Venezuelan Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake of Venezuela's lowlands and llanos, notable for evenly spaced black rings of roughly equal width to the red bands.
Central American Coral Snake
A widespread and medically significant tricolor coral snake found from southern Mexico through Central America.
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.
Langsdorff's Coral Snake
A widespread Amazonian coral snake named after German naturalist Georg von Langsdorff, patterned in bold tricolor rings.
Death Adder
A short, ambush-hunting elapid that resembles a viper in shape and behavior despite belonging to the cobra family.
King Cobra
The world's longest venomous snake, a formidable elapid of South and Southeast Asian forests that preys chiefly on other snakes.
Caspian Cobra
A highly venomous cobra of Central and Southwest Asia's arid regions, adapted to some of the northernmost cobra ranges in the world.
Collett's Snake
A robust, strikingly patterned elapid endemic to the black-soil floodplains of interior Queensland.
Tiger Snake
A highly venomous Australian elapid known for its banded pattern and defensive flattened-neck display.
Variable Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake with highly variable banding patterns found across much of Mexico and northern Central America.
Adorned Coral Snake
A strikingly patterned Amazonian coral snake whose scientific name, ornatissimus, reflects its especially vivid tricolor banding.
Angolan Garter Snake
A small African garter snake with faint banding, related to the venomous garter snakes of the genus Elapsoidea.
Samar Cobra
A spitting cobra native to the central and southern Philippines, closely related to the Philippine cobra of Luzon but recognized as a distinct species.
Arizona Coral Snake
A small desert-dwelling coral snake of the Sonoran Desert region, the only coral snake species in the American Southwest, with a mild but medically distinct venom.
Speckled Brown Snake
A medium-sized brown snake species from the interior of Queensland, named for the fine speckled pattern often present on its scales.
Orange-Naped Snake
A slender elapid with a bold orange nape patch and black head, widespread across northern and eastern Australia.
Texas Coral Snake
A brightly ringed coral snake of Texas, Louisiana, and northeastern Mexico, closely related to and long considered a subspecies of the eastern coral snake.