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.
Western Fox Snake
A stout, tan-and-brown blotched constrictor of the Midwest prairies, sometimes mistaken for a rattlesnake due to defensive tail vibration.
Gopher Snake
A large, powerfully built colubrid often mistaken for a rattlesnake due to its defensive hissing and tail-vibrating display.
Marbled Sea Snake
A small sea snake with reduced fangs and greatly diminished venom, specialized for feeding on fish eggs rather than active prey, making it functionally harmless to humans.
Striped Harlequin Snake
A small, striped southern African elapid closely related to the spotted harlequin snake, distinguished by longitudinal stripes rather than spots.
Ringed Snail-eater
An alternate name for the boldly ringed Central American snail-eating snake, distinguished by its complete encircling bands of color.
Pacific Gopher Snake
A large, heavy-bodied colubrid of the Pacific coast known for its loud hiss and defensive tail-vibrating display that often leads to mistaken identity as a rattlesnake.
Montane Egg-eater
A small, harmless African snake specialized entirely for eating bird eggs, found in highland and montane habitats of East and Central Africa.
Eastern Kingsnake
A glossy black snake marked with narrow chain-like yellow or white bands, famed for preying on venomous snakes.
Calabar Boa
A cylindrical, burrowing boa-like snake from West and Central Africa with a distinctive blunt tail used to confuse predators.
Calabar Burrowing Python
A stout, secretive burrowing snake of West and Central Africa whose blunt tail mimics its head as a defensive strategy against predators.
West African Egg-eater
A harmless, egg-specialist snake from West and Central African forests, notable for its ability to swallow eggs many times the width of its head.
Banded Sea Krait
A distinctive black-and-pale banded sea snake that comes ashore to rest, digest, and lay eggs, unlike fully aquatic sea snakes.
Southern Durango Spotted Garter Snake
A montane garter snake from the pine-oak forests of southern Durango, distinguished by a spotted rather than striped dorsal pattern.
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.
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.
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.
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.