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.
Green Anaconda
One of the world's heaviest snakes, a massive semi-aquatic constrictor of South American rivers and wetlands.
Ruschenberger's Tree Boa
A slender, arboreal tree boa of Central America and northern South America closely related to the common tree boa.
Andean Milk Snake
A South American milk snake subspecies from Andean foothill regions, displaying classic tricolor banding.
Rainforest Hognosed Pit Viper
A small, well-camouflaged terrestrial pit viper of Central and South American rainforests, named for its upturned snout.
Aesculapian False Coral Snake
A mildly venomous South American colubrid that mimics true coral snakes with bold red, black, and white banding.
Rainbow Boa
A South American boa renowned for its iridescent sheen, which produces a shimmering rainbow effect in direct sunlight.
Yellow-tailed Cribo
A large, powerful South American colubrid related to indigo snakes, known for its glossy scales and impressive length.
Brown-banded Water Snake
A common, semi-aquatic South American snake with brown banding, well adapted to life in rivers, ponds, and marshes.
Guyana Blackback Coral Snake
A small coral snake of northern South America and southern Central America, patterned in tricolor rings with narrow pale bands.
False Water Cobra
A large, aquatic South American colubrid capable of flattening its neck into a cobra-like hood when threatened.
Mertens' Coral Snake
A South American coral snake honoring herpetologist Robert Mertens, found in the dry western forests of Ecuador and Peru.
Leopard Water Snake
A boldly spotted aquatic snake of southern South American wetlands, named for the leopard-like blotches covering its body.
Jararacussu
One of the largest South American lanceheads, a heavy-bodied forest pit viper capable of delivering large venom yields.
Painted Coral Snake
A vividly ringed coral snake of the South American Atlantic Forest, notable for its black snout and tricolor banding pattern.
Jararaca
A widespread South American pit viper important both medically and pharmacologically, as its venom led to the development of ACE inhibitor drugs.
Green Racer
A slender, bright green, fast-moving snake of South American forests that hunts actively by day for frogs, lizards, and small mammals.
Yellow Anaconda
A large, semi-aquatic constrictor of South American wetlands, smaller than its relative the green anaconda but still among the heaviest snakes in the Americas.
Lichtenstein's Green Racer
A slender green-and-gray South American snake, common in gardens and forest edges, known for its speed and defensive bite when cornered.
Pygmy Coral Snake
A small monadal-pattern coral snake of the dry Chaco and Cerrado regions of southern South America.
Redbelly Water Snake
A heavy-bodied water snake with a plain dark back and a bright reddish-orange belly, common along ponds and swamps of the American South.
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.
Common Lancehead
The most widespread lancehead of the Amazon Basin, a major cause of snakebite envenomation across tropical South America.
Dumeril's Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake of humid forests in northern South America, named for French naturalist Auguste Dumeril.
Crowned False Boa
A slender reddish colubrid from South America named for a dark crown-like marking on its head.