Snake Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ snakes from around the world — with family, range, size, habitat, and how to tell similar species apart.
Emerald Snake
A vividly emerald-green African forest snake known for its keeled scales and glossy iridescence.
Nitsche's Bush Viper
An arboreal African viper of montane forest habitats, named for its variable coloring and keeled scales.
Peters's Sea Snake
A distinctive sea snake with raised, spine-like scales on its head, found in shallow coastal waters of northern Australia and Southeast Asia.
White-Lipped Python
A group of glossy, dark-bodied New Guinea pythons named for the pale scales lining their upper jaw.
Keel-Bellied Whip Snake
A slender, arboreal colubrid of Southeast Asian forests, notable for the distinct keeled scales along its belly.
Big Bend Patch-Nosed Snake
A desert colubrid with an enlarged, upturned rostral scale used for digging, marked by a bold pale vertebral stripe.
White-lipped Keelback
A small forest-floor colubrid of Southeast Asia distinguished by its contrasting white upper lip scales.
Smooth Green Snake
A small, grass-green colubrid of meadows and grasslands, distinguished from its relative by smooth, unkeeled scales.
Keeled Rat Snake
A very large, fast-moving rat snake from Southeast Asian rainforests, distinguished by strongly keeled dorsal scales that give it a rough texture.
Spine-Bellied Sea Snake
A stout, small-headed sea snake with distinctly keeled belly scales, common in shallow tropical and subtropical waters and frequently caught as bycatch by trawlers.
Amethystine Python
One of the longest snakes in the world, this iridescent brown python takes its name from the amethyst-like sheen its scales cast in sunlight.
Cape Beaked Snake
A blunt-snouted, burrowing blind snake from southern Africa named for its distinctive beaked rostral scale.
Rhinoceros Viper
A strikingly patterned African viper with distinctive horn-like scales on its snout, known for stunning geometric coloration.
Rough Green Snake
A slender, bright green colubrid with keeled scales, common in shrubs and vegetation near water across the southeastern US.
Smooth Snake
A secretive, smooth-scaled European colubrid often mistaken for a viper, notable for constricting prey including other reptiles.
Western Patch-Nosed Snake
A slender, fast-moving desert snake named for the enlarged, shield-like scale covering the tip of its snout.
Eastern Green Mamba Bush Viper
An arboreal African viper with rough, keeled scales and variable green coloration, often mottled with yellow or blue tones.
Nose-Horned Viper Ammodytes
A European viper, easily identified by a distinctive soft horn-like scale projecting from the tip of its snout.
Desert Blind Snake
A tiny, worm-like burrowing snake of the American Southwest deserts with vestigial eyes hidden beneath translucent scales.
Beauty Rat Snake
A strikingly patterned, long-bodied rat snake from East and Southeast Asia, prized for its glossy scales and bold longitudinal stripes near the tail.
Cape Wolf Snake
A small, nocturnal African colubrid named for its enlarged, recurved front teeth used to grip smooth-scaled reptile prey such as lizards and other snakes.
White-Lipped Snake
A small, cold-tolerant elapid of cool southern Australian habitats, named for the pale scales bordering its upper lip.
Dwarf File Snake
A small African file snake with rough, keeled scales, named for its diminutive size relative to its larger relatives.
Shield-Nosed Snake
A small, thick-bodied elapid of southern Africa named for its enlarged, shield-like rostral scale used for burrowing.