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.
Flying Snake
A slender tree-dwelling colubrid capable of gliding between trees by flattening its body into a concave, wing-like shape.
Top End Carpet Python
A broadly distributed population of the Darwin carpet python subspecies across the tropical Top End region of the Northern Territory.
Twin-spotted Rat Snake
A small, slender rat snake from China marked with paired dark spots along its back, well suited to rocky and hilly terrain.
Brazilian Coral Snake
A brightly ringed coral snake of southern South America's grasslands and forests, notable for its bold black-yellow-red banding and secretive lifestyle.
Yellow-bellied Liophis
A widespread South American colubrid with a bright yellow belly, often found near wetlands and grasslands.
Ashe's Spitting Cobra
The largest of the spitting cobras, a robust brown East African species capable of exceptional size and a substantial venom yield.
Neckband Snake
A small, slender colubrid known for a banded pattern that abruptly changes partway down the body, and a tail that can detach.
Red Sand Boa
A thick-bodied, burrowing boa with a blunt tail often mistaken for a second head, prized illegally in wildlife trafficking.
Vogel's Pit Viper
A green pit viper of Indochinese forests, named in honor of German herpetologist Gernot Vogel.
Sinaloan Milk Snake
A brightly banded, non-venomous milk snake from western Mexico, known for its vivid red, black, and white/yellow tricolor rings.
Snouted Cobra
A large, highly venomous cobra of southern Africa's savannas, closely related to the Egyptian Cobra and named for its slightly upturned snout.
Saharan Sand Viper
A classic desert viper of North Africa, often depicted with distinctive horn-like scales above each eye and famed for its sidewinding tracks across dunes.
Asp Viper
A moderately stout viper found across western and southern Europe, closely related to the Common Adder and generally considered more dangerous.
Mangshan Pit Viper
A rare and large pit viper endemic to a single mountain region in China, notable for its size and pale, mossy coloration.
Bandy-Bandy
A striking black-and-white banded elapid famous for arching loops of its body when threatened.
Sand Boa
A small, stout, burrowing boa adapted for a life spent mostly beneath sand and loose soil in South Asia's dry habitats.
Jumping Pit Viper
A stout, heavy-bodied terrestrial pit viper known for its rapid, forceful strikes that can propel part of its body off the ground.
Chihuahua Mountain Kingsnake
A tricolor highland kingsnake endemic to the pine-oak forests of Chihuahua's mountain ranges.
Common Mud Snake Malayan
A small, common freshwater mud snake found throughout Southeast Asia, frequently seen in rice paddies and slow-moving waters.
Banded Water Snake
A heavy-bodied, boldly banded water snake of the southeastern US, often mistaken for the venomous cottonmouth.
Palmerston Carpet Python
A locality of the Darwin carpet python subspecies from the Palmerston area near Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory.
California Mountain Kingsnake
A vividly banded non-venomous kingsnake native to the Pacific coast, resembling venomous coral snakes despite lacking venom.
Borneo Short-Tailed Python
A stout island relative of the blood pythons, endemic to Borneo, typically lighter and tan-colored compared to its Sumatran cousin.
Sonoran Coral Snake
A small, brightly banded desert coral snake found in Arizona and northwestern Mexico, distinguished by its blunt black snout.
Western Hognose Snake
A stout, upturned-nosed colubrid of the North American prairies, known for its bluffing displays and generally docile nature.
Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake
The most widely distributed snake species in the world, a fully pelagic sea snake found drifting across open tropical oceans.
Spectacled Cobra
One of India's 'Big Four' medically significant snakes, famous for the spectacle-shaped mark on its raised hood.
Royal Ground Snake
A small, brightly marked ground-dwelling colubrid found in open and forested habitats across northern South America.
Common Sand Boa
A short, stout, patterned burrowing boa common across dry and semi-arid regions of the Indian subcontinent.
Indian Flying Snake
A slender, golden-patterned tree snake famous for its ability to glide between trees by flattening its body into a concave shape.
Curl Snake
A small, dull-colored elapid of Australia's arid interior known for curling into a tight coil when threatened.
Madagascar Tree Boa
An arboreal, heavy-bodied boa endemic to Madagascar, known for its variable green, brown, or reddish coloration and strong prehensile tail.
Florida Crowned Snake
A tiny, secretive snake endemic to peninsular Florida's sandy scrub habitats, marked by a dark crown-like cap over the head.
Dinnik's Viper
A small, high-altitude viper endemic to alpine meadows of the Caucasus Mountains, adapted to cold montane conditions.
Malayan Pit Viper
A medium-sized, heavy-bodied pit viper of Southeast Asia known for its distinctive triangular head markings and its role in significant numbers of snakebite cases in the region.
Zebra Spitting Cobra
A boldly banded spitting cobra of the arid southwestern African coast, named for its striking black-and-cream crossbanded pattern.
Cloudy Snail-eating Snake
A slender, big-eyed nocturnal snake specialized for extracting snails and slugs from their shells, found in humid Neotropical forests.
West African Gaboon Viper
A massive, ornately patterned viper with the longest fangs of any snake, native to West African rainforests.
Eastern Copperhead
A copper-colored pit viper common across the eastern and central United States, known for its hourglass-shaped bands.
Dumeril's Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake of humid forests in northern South America, named for French naturalist Auguste Dumeril.
Egyptian Cobra
A large, highly venomous cobra widespread across Africa, historically significant in ancient Egyptian culture and iconography.
Fine-Spined Sea Snake
A stout, boldly banded sea snake common in muddy coastal waters and a frequent bycatch species of trawl fisheries across the Indo-Pacific.
Variegated Wolf Snake
A larger Southeast Asian wolf snake with variable banding that changes with age, harmless to humans despite krait-like appearance.
Timber Rattlesnake
A heavy-bodied woodland rattlesnake of the eastern United States, often showing dark chevron banding and a black tail.
Papuan Python
One of the largest pythons of New Guinea, a powerful constrictor capable of preying on sizeable mammals.
Inland Carpet Python
A carpet python subspecies adapted to the drier inland regions of southeastern Australia, with a subdued olive-and-cream blotched pattern.
Green Keelback
A small, bright green rear-fanged colubrid found in hilly forests of the Indian subcontinent.
Ravergier's Snake
A slender, fast-moving diurnal whip snake found across arid and semi-arid habitats from the eastern Mediterranean through the Caucasus into Central Asia.