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.
Racer
A slender, fast-moving, sharp-eyed snake known for its speed and alert temperament.
Tawny Cat Snake
A slender, pale tawny-colored cat snake found in forests from the eastern Himalayan foothills through Southeast Asia.
Many-spotted Cat Snake
A slender, densely spotted nocturnal tree snake found across Southeast Asian forests and gardens.
Godman's Mountain Pit Viper
A stout, short-tailed pit viper of Asian highland forests with variable earthy brown patterning.
Orange-Naped Snake
A slender elapid with a bold orange nape patch and black head, widespread across northern and eastern Australia.
Road Guarder
A striped, mildly venomous ground snake often seen basking on roads and open paths in dry tropical habitats.
Blossom Krait
A small, harmless, krait-like colubrid whose banded pattern often causes it to be mistaken for a venomous krait.
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.
Twin-Spotted Wolf Snake
A small, harmless nocturnal colubrid with paired dark spots and enlarged front teeth resembling those of venomous species.
Prairie Rattlesnake
A widespread rattlesnake of the North American grasslands and high plains, well adapted to a broad range of elevations and cooler climates than many of its relatives.
Orsini's Viper
A small, secretive meadow-dwelling viper with fragmented populations across Europe, generally regarded as having weak venom of little medical significance to humans.
Florida Brownsnake
A small, common brown snake of Florida gardens and woodlands, closely related to the widespread De Kay's Brownsnake.
Giant Garter Snake
California's largest garter snake, an endangered wetland specialist of the Central Valley.
Fitzinger's Coral Snake
A South American coral snake named in honor of naturalist Leopold Fitzinger, marked with tricolor rings.
Dwarf Wolf Snake
A diminutive Southeast Asian wolf snake, among the smallest members of the genus Lycodon, harmless to humans.
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.
Common Cat Snake
A slender, patterned nocturnal snake found across the Indian subcontinent, often mistaken for a young viper due to its triangular head and vertical pupils.
Meadow Viper
A small, threatened viper of montane meadows and steppe grasslands in southern and southeastern Europe, with a mild venom rarely of medical concern.
Bornean Pit Viper
A green arboreal pit viper endemic to Borneo, common in lowland and hill forest.
Spotted Bush Snake
A slender, bright green African tree snake marked with small dark speckles, commonly seen climbing through shrubs and buildings in search of frogs and lizards.
Neotropical Water Snake
A strongly aquatic colubrid common in still and slow-moving freshwater habitats across northern South America.
Tropical Hognose Snake
A stout, upturned-snouted colubrid known for its dramatic bluffing displays when threatened.
Red Vine Snake
A slender, laterally compressed arboreal colubrid of the Amazon known for its striking red, black, and yellow banded pattern.
Brown-banded Water Snake
A common, semi-aquatic South American snake with brown banding, well adapted to life in rivers, ponds, and marshes.
Cape Centipede-Eater
A small, secretive southern African snake that specializes in hunting centipedes, subduing them with a mild rear-fanged venom.
Western Rattlesnake
A widespread pit viper of the western United States and Canada, recognized by its dark blotches and rattling tail.
Cauca Coral Snake
A slender tricolor coral snake endemic to Colombia, patterned in classic red-black-yellow rings.
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.
Green Tree Python
A vividly green, non-venomous arboreal python of New Guinea and northern Australia, known for its striking resemblance to the emerald tree boa of South America.
Blanding's Tree Snake
A slender, nocturnal arboreal snake from African rainforests with large eyes adapted for night vision and a mild rear-fanged venom.
Smooth Green Snake
A small, docile, grass-green colubrid of meadows and grasslands, distinguished from its relative by smooth, unkeeled scales.
Jerdon's Pit Viper
A high-altitude pit viper of the eastern Himalayas and adjacent hill country, marked with bold black and yellow banding.
Rainbow Snake
A glossy, iridescent black snake with three bright red or pink stripes running the length of its body, closely tied to freshwater eel populations.
Blue-Lipped Sea Krait
A banded, amphibious sea krait that hunts in coral reefs but returns to land to rest, digest, and lay eggs.
Australian Coral Snake
A small, brightly banded burrowing elapid found across arid and semi-arid regions of Australia, unrelated to true New World coral snakes.
Ringed Snail-eater
An alternate name for the boldly ringed Central American snail-eating snake, distinguished by its complete encircling bands of color.
Dahl's Whip Snake
A slender, fast-moving whip snake of dry, open habitats across the Balkans, Middle East, and parts of Central Asia.
Amazon False Fer-de-lance
A harmless, viper-mimicking colubrid of the Amazon that flattens its head into a triangular shape to fool predators into thinking it is a dangerous pit viper.
Sind Saw-Scaled Viper
A small, highly defensive desert viper known for producing a distinctive rasping warning sound by rubbing its serrated scales together.
Northern Cottonmouth
A stout, semi-aquatic pit viper of southeastern wetlands, named for the white lining of its mouth displayed as a threat.
Chinese Mountain Pit Viper
A stout, ground-dwelling pit viper of montane forests across southern China and Southeast Asia.
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.
Arabian Sand Boa
A small, stout burrowing boa adapted to the sand dunes and gravel deserts of the Arabian Peninsula.
Dog-Faced Water Snake
A common, blunt-snouted brackish-water snake of Asian estuaries and mangroves, named for its somewhat dog-like facial profile.
Baird's Rat Snake
A handsomely patterned orange-and-gray rat snake of the arid Trans-Pecos region, with faint striping along its length.
Mojave Rattlesnake
A desert rattlesnake notable for producing venom with potent neurotoxic components in many populations, distinguishing it medically from most other rattlesnakes.
Night Snake
A small, secretive, cat-eyed colubrid of arid western North America that is rear-fanged but harmless to humans.
Painted Saw-Scaled Viper
A brightly patterned desert viper of the Arabian Peninsula known for its distinctive warning display and rasping sound.