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.
Southern Copperhead
A common, well-camouflaged pit viper of southern woodlands, responsible for many defensive bites due to its cryptic pattern.
King Rat Snake
A large, powerfully built East Asian rat snake with strongly keeled scales, known for its yellowish crossbanding and its role as a natural predator of venomous snakes.
Jararaca
A widespread South American pit viper important both medically and pharmacologically, as its venom led to the development of ACE inhibitor drugs.
Copperhead Rattlesnake
Despite the informal name, a rattle-less pit viper with a distinctive coppery, hourglass-banded pattern found across the eastern US.
Island Lancehead
A rare, small island-endemic pit viper found only on Alcatrazes Island off the coast of Brazil, closely related to the Golden Lancehead.
Black Mussurana
A large, glossy black colubrid widespread across Latin America, famed for eating other snakes, including venomous vipers and coral snakes.
Cape Wolf Snake
A small, nocturnal African colubrid named for its enlarged, fang-like front teeth used to grip smooth-scaled reptile prey such as lizards and other snakes.
Ford's Boa
A tiny, rough-scaled leaf-litter dwarf boa from the wet forests of the Choco region, rarely seen due to its cryptic habits.
Glossy Snake
A pale, sleek desert snake resembling a gophersnake but with smoother scales and a distinctly glossy sheen.
Sunbeam Snake
A glossy, iridescent burrowing snake of Southeast Asia named for the rainbow sheen its smooth scales produce in sunlight.
Tiger Rat Snake
A large, boldly patterned tropical colubrid, striking in appearance and known for its speed and alertness.
Mole Snake
A large, powerfully built, non-venomous African snake specialized in preying on burrowing rodents.
Indian Rock Python
A large, powerful constrictor native to the Indian subcontinent, historically significant in local culture and folklore.
Smooth Earth Snake
A small, plain, burrowing colubrid of the eastern and central United States, closely resembling the Rough Earth Snake but with smooth scales.
Speckled Shield Cobra
A dangerously venomous cobra of Central Asian deserts and semi-arid regions, distinguished by its plain, faintly speckled scales.
Southeastern Green Snake
A slender, bright green North American snake with keeled scales, well known as a gentle, harmless resident of shrubs and vines.
Brazilian Rainbow Boa
A vividly patterned constrictor famous for the iridescent sheen of its scales, which produces a rainbow-like shimmer in direct sunlight.
Anomalous Sea Snake
A sea snake named for its unusual combination of scale and morphological traits, found in coastal waters of the northern Indian Ocean.
Australian Scrub Python
Australia's longest snake, a large iridescent python of the tropical rainforests of northeastern Queensland and Cape York.
Red Diamond Rattlesnake
A large pinkish-red rattlesnake of Baja California and southern California, marked with bold diamond blotches.
Parrot Snake
A slender, bright green, diurnal tree snake with large eyes, common throughout Neotropical forests.
Florida Pine Snake
A large, pale, burrowing constrictor of Florida's sandhills, associated closely with gopher tortoise burrows.
Papuan Black Snake
A large, glossy black elapid found in the wetlands and grasslands of southern Papua New Guinea.
Java File Snake
A fully aquatic file snake covered in rough, granular scales, found in the rivers and estuaries of Java and the surrounding Southeast Asian region.