Snake Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ snakes from around the world — with family, range, size, habitat, and how to tell similar species apart.
Cat Snake
A slender, nocturnal colubrid named for its vertically elliptical, cat-like pupils, found across South Asia and the Middle East.
Cat-Eyed Water Snake
A small, secretive mangrove snake from Asia with distinctive vertical pupils, specialized in feeding on crabs.
Cauca Coral Snake
A slender tricolor coral snake endemic to Colombia, patterned in classic red-black-yellow rings.
Caucasus Viper
A vividly colored, endangered mountain viper endemic to the forested slopes of the Caucasus region.
Central American Boa
A widespread, adaptable boa found from Mexico through Central America, closely related to the South American boa constrictor.
Central American Bushmaster
One of the largest snakes in the Americas, a massive, reclusive pit viper of Central American rainforests.
Central American Coral Snake
A widespread tricolor coral snake found from southern Mexico through Central America.
Central American Indigo Snake
A large, powerful colubrid related to the eastern indigo snake, with a glossy dark tail and lighter forebody.
Central Asian Pit Viper
A pit viper of the arid and semi-arid landscapes of Central Asia, closely related to the Halys pit viper.
Central Asian Saw-Scaled Viper
A subspecies of saw-scaled viper adapted to the arid steppe and desert basins of Central Asia.
Central Plains Milk Snake
A tricolor milk snake subspecies of the central US plains, closely resembling other regional milk snakes with red, black, and cream banding.
Ceylon Cat Snake
A small, reddish-brown cat snake endemic to Sri Lanka and adjacent southern India, active at night in forested and rural habitats.
Ceylon Krait
A slender, endemic krait restricted to Sri Lanka, marked with narrow pale crossbands on a dark body.
Ceylon Pipe Snake
A cylindrical, glossy burrowing snake endemic to Sri Lanka, notable for its bright red and black underside used in displays.
Checkered Garter Snake
A striped garter snake with a bold checkerboard pattern of dark blotches between the stripes, found across the arid Southwest.
Checkered Keelback
One of the most common water-associated snakes in Asia, recognized by its checkerboard pattern and strongly keeled scales, frequently seen near rice paddies and ponds.
Chihuahua Mountain Kingsnake
A tricolor highland kingsnake endemic to the pine-oak forests of Chihuahua's mountain ranges.
Chihuahuan Nightsnake
A slender, nocturnal desert snake with catlike vertical pupils and a pair of dark neck blotches resembling a collar.
Children's Python
One of the smallest python species, native to northern Australia, and named not after children but after zoologist John George Children.
Chinese Cobra
A medium-large cobra of East Asia, notable for a pale, often single or double, ring-like marking on the back of its hood.
Chinese Green Tree Viper
A slender, arboreal green pit viper common across southern China, Taiwan, and northern Vietnam, frequently encountered in forests and cultivated areas.
Chinese Mountain Pit Viper
A stout, ground-dwelling pit viper of montane forests across southern China and Southeast Asia.
Chinese Sea Snake
One of the larger and more widely distributed true sea snakes, recognizable by its bold black and yellow-green banding, ranging across coastal Asian waters.
Choco Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake of the biodiverse Choco rainforest region on Colombia's Pacific coast.
Clark's Coral Snake
A tricolor coral snake of Pacific lowland rainforests in Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador.
Cliff Racer
A fast, slender racer adapted to rocky and mountainous terrain across the Middle East and Central Asia.
Clifford's Snake
A robust, boldly blotched diadem snake found in sandy and rocky desert habitats from North Africa across the Middle East into Central and South Asia.
Cloudy Snail-eating Snake
A slender, big-eyed nocturnal snake specialized for extracting snails and slugs from their shells, found in humid Neotropical forests.
Coachwhip
A slender, exceptionally fast-moving colubrid named for its braided, whip-like tail pattern.
Coastal Carpet Python
One of the largest carpet python subspecies, found along Australia's eastern seaboard with a variable olive-to-brown blotched pattern.
Coastal Rosy Boa
A small desert-and-scrub boa from coastal Southern California, recognized by its three longitudinal stripes.
Coastal Taipan
A large, fast-moving Australian elapid found along tropical coastal regions and adjacent New Guinea.
Coin-Marked Snake
A slender, fast-moving colubrid of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, named for the rounded, coin-like dark blotches along its back.
Collared Dwarf Racer
A tiny, secretive colubrid of the Middle East and Caucasus, notable for its small size and a dark collar marking behind the head.
Collett's Snake
A robust, strikingly patterned elapid endemic to the black-soil floodplains of interior Queensland.
Colombian Rainbow Boa
A medium-sized boa prized for its iridescent sheen, which produces a rainbow-like shimmer on its scales under direct light.
Common Adder
A small, widespread viper found across Europe and into northern Asia, notable for having the largest geographic range of any land snake species.
Common Bridal Snake
A small, slender nocturnal colubrid from South Asia with a delicate banded pattern.
Common Bronzeback
A slender, fast-moving, day-active tree snake with a bronze-toned back, common across gardens and forest edges of the Indian subcontinent.
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.
Common Death Adder
A short, thick-bodied ambush-predator elapid that mimics a viper in body shape and hunting style, using a worm-like tail lure to attract prey.
Common Egg-Eating Snake
A slender African colubrid famed for a diet consisting almost entirely of bird eggs, which it swallows whole and crushes internally.
Common Egg-eater
A remarkable African colubrid that feeds exclusively on bird eggs, using specialized vertebral spines in its throat to crack shells after swallowing them whole.
Common Garter Snake
One of the most widespread and familiar snakes in North America, known for its longitudinal stripes and highly variable coloration.
Common Glossy Racer
A widespread, smooth-scaled racer with a glossy sheen, found across a broad swath of Neotropical habitats.
Common Krait
A nocturnal elapid of South Asia, glossy blue-black with faint white crossbands.
Common Kukri Snake
A small banded colubrid named for its curved, kukri-knife-shaped rear teeth used to slit open reptile eggs.
Common Lancehead
The most widespread lancehead of the Amazon Basin, found across tropical South America.