Snake Identification
1. Where do you want to search?
Country name:
Insert a country name like for example 'India' to search for snakes in this country. If you leave the input field blank, the search will cover snakes worldwide.
2. What are you searching?
Venomous & dangerous:
These snakes with a potent venom apparatus. If you get bitten by such a snake you might be severely injured or even die from the bite.
The actual outcome of a certain bite, however, is never predictable! The severity of a bite depends on various factors. Among others, these are the injected amount of venom, the bite site, the overall health condition of the bite victim, age and weight and so on.
Bites of snakes classified as dangerously venomous should always be taken serious. Even when no immediate bite symptoms (e.g. pain at bite site, dizzyness) are present!
Dangerous constrictors:
We classify all spezialized constrictor snakes (e.g. Boas and Pythons) that reach the size of at least 240 cm as dangerous. Pythons this size have killed adult humans in the past. Consequently, these snakes need to be treated with caution.
As a rule of thumb, you need one adult per meter constrictor snake to control the animal. The bigger a constrictor gets, the more dangerous is it. There is solid evidence, that very large constrictors like adult Reticulated Pythons (Malayopython reticulatus) at least occasionally hunt, kill and devour adult humans.
Large constrictor snakes are commonly traded as pets, but they are actually formidable hunters, not pets. Constrictor snakes can overpower animals or humans that weigh much more than the snake itself!
Other snakes:
Any snake that is considered not be able to kill or seriously injure an adult human either by constriction or by injecting venom is classified in this category.
The constrictor snakes in this category are smaller species that are not considered dangerous.
Included as well are snakes that do have a venom apparatus which is considered too weak to seriously harm an adult human.
In some very rare circumstances (e.g. if the bite victim is allergic to the venom), a venomous bite of such a snake may cause an anaphylapic shock.
This can be compared with a sting of a bee, wasp or hornet. These insect envenomations may cause pain and discomfort, but they are usually not considered dangerous. Things may change if the victim of the evenomation is allergic to the bite. Allergic persons can even die from a bee sting which is not harmful to a non-allergic person. Same applies to snake bite victims. An allergic person can get into serious problems when bitten and evenomated by a venomous snake that is considered not dangerous. These does not happen often, but it should be mentioned.
In a nutshell: It is best to avoid being bitten by any snake! Not only for you, for the snake as well.
3. Do you need more options?
Expert options selected:
Choose this option, and expert filters will open.
Expert options contain a wide range of filtering options for morphological features of a snakes.
This allows a granular search, e.g. if you filter for snakes that have a certain dentition of discinctive pits in their heads.
Expert options are extremely useful for countries that have a wide range of snake species.
Expert options NOT selected:
Choose this option, and press Search-button after.
This is perfect for a quick search, even though it is not overly precise.
All input for the expert options below is optional. Everything is preselected by default, so you are not required to select anything here. Change selections to fine-tune your search only if needed.
3. What size is the snake?
No selection by size:
Select this option, if you don't know the size of the snake that you are looking for. It will show snakes of all size.
Interpolated search:
The interpolated search is required, because exact size data for many snake species is not available.
For an exact size search, you will need both adult and neonate size of a snake. In most cases the adult size of a snake is known, but the neonate size of a snake is unknown. Consequently, an exact search will cover only few species.
This problem can be solved by interpolated search. The missing data neonate size data is interpolated. The interpolated search is not as precise as an exact search, but it delivers satisfactory results for many species.
Consequently, we recommend to use the interpolated search by default.
Exact search:
The exact search is the most precise way to look up snakes of a certain size. It requires size data of adult and neonate snakes of the same species. If this data is given, you can reliably calculate the size range of a certain snake species.
Unfortunately, size data for many snake species is incomplete. In most cases, there is no data about the size of neonate snakes. All species with incomplete datasets will be missing in the results of an exact search.
For this reason, the exact search is only recommended for snake species with complete datasets. You should check size data completion by using the subsequent two options for the selection of snake species with incomplete data.
Run exact search only, if both adult and neonate sizes of the species in your selection are known.
Snakes w/o neonate size data:
For these snake species, the size of neonate snakes is unknown. If you run an exact search, species with incomplete data will not be displayed at all.
We then recommend to run interpolated search in this case. Presupposed, that at least adult size data is available for these species.
Snakes w/o adult size data:
For these snake species, the size of adult snakes is unknown. Species which do not have adult size data will be missing both in the results of interpolated and exact search.
In this case, we recommend not to use any size selection.
4. Is it a sea snake?
Land snake:
Land snakes are all snakes, that are not sea snakes. You can recognize non-sea snakes because they lack paddle-like tails which only sea snakes have.
Land snakes can be acquatic snakes, or terrestric snakes that entered the water temporarily. Many land snakes may enter brackish or even sea water occasionally.
Sea snake:
You can unambiguously identify sea snakes by their paddle-like tails. Almost all sea snakes have a very dangerous venomous bite.
Sea snake bites are insidious, because they are usually painless. The bite victim may be bitten and lethally envenomated without even realising that.
Snakes w/o data:
These are species which are not yet identified in the database as sea snake or as non-sea snake.
5. Can you describe the eyes?
A. Eye type
Vestigial eyes:
Vestigial eyes are not distinct from the surrounding scales. In most cases they consist only of primitive light detecting spots that are located below a scale. There is no pupil. A large family of snakes with vestigial eyes are the Blind Snakes (Typhlopidae).
Distinct eyes:
Distinct eyes are eyes that have a pupil and that are distinct from the scales around. The pupil may not be visible in a living snake if the iris is as black as the pupil. But snakes with distinct eyes do have pupils.
Species w/o eye type data:
For these species eye-type data is missing. It is unclear if they have distinct or vestigial eyes.
B. Pupil shape
No pupil:
Snake with vestigial eyes, like Blind snakes (Typhlopidae) have no pupil. Don't confuse these with snakes that do have pupils which are not visible! It happens quite often that a snake pupil is not visible, at least not in a live snake. This happens quite often when the iris is as black as the pupil.
Rule of thumb: All snakes with distinct eyes do have pupils. All snakes with vestigial eyes do not have pupils.
Round (or oval) pupil:
The shape of a round or oval pupil usually does not change if it opens or closes to adapt to different lighting situations. A closed pupil will look as round as a wide open pupil.
A secure identification of a round pupil is only possible in bright light, when the pupil is closed!
Reason: Slit pupils or elliptically shaped pupils can look almost round too if fully opened. For this reason, you need to inspect the pupil in good lighting conditions when it is closed.
Slit (or elliptical) pupil:
These pupils close to a slit in good lighting conditions. In bad lighting conditions, however, they can often open so wide that they look almost round.
Rule of thumb: If you see a snake with a visibly slit-shaped pupil you can securely identify this pupil as slit. This will usually be the case in good lightung conditions.
A secure identification of a slit pupil is only possible in bright light, when the pupil is closed!
If you see a snake with a round pupil in bad light (=fully opened pupil), no secure identification of the pupil shape is possible. Fully opened pupils are round for round-shaped pupils and for slit-shaped pupils, as well. This can be misleading as e.g. most field guides do not take this important fact into consideration.
Subcircular pupil:
Subcircular pupils are a rather exotic pupil shape for snakes. When fully closed, it can be difficult to distinguish a subcircular pupil from a slit pupil.
For best identification of a subcircular pupil, you should check it when the pupil is fully opened (=in dark lighting conditions).
Keyhole shaped pupil:
A keyhole-shaped pupil can be described as a mix between a slit pupil and a round pupil. One end of the keyhole-shaped pupil is pointy (like a slit pupil), the other end ot the pupil is round (like a round pupil). This creates the unique keyhole pupil type.
A fully opened keyhole-shaped pupil can somehow resemble a round pupil.
For best identification of a keyhole shaped pupil, use dark light conditions when the pupil is closed.
Snakes w/o pupil shape data:
We don't have any pupil shape data for these snakes. Consequently, these snake species will be missing from any search results that filters by a certain pupil shape.
6. Can you describe the head?
A. Heat Sensing Pits
Snakes without heat sensing pits:
These snakes do not have any heat-sensing pits.
Snakes with loreal heat sensing pits:
The only group of snakes with heat sensing loreal pits are the Pit Vipers (Subfamily: Crotalinae).
Snakes with labial heat sensing pits:
Some pythons and boas have labial heat sensing pits. These can be either located in the upper jaw or in the lower jaw.
Snakes without pit data:
We don't know, if these snakes have heat sensing pits or not.
B. Fangs
Snakes without fangs:
The snakes do not have fangs. Fangs are enlarged snake teeth that are designed to cause a deep puncture wound in the bite victim's body. Usually, the purpose of snake fangs is to impose venom into the puncture wound. Fangs should not be confused with enlarged teeth that are designed to grab prey.
Snakes without fangs can and often do have sharp teeth. Fangless does not mean toothless!
Snakes with front fangs:
These snakes have specialized fangs that are located in the front jaw. Usually, these are dangerously venomous species like vipers (family: Viperidae), elapids (family: Elapidae) or molevipers (subfamily: Atractaspidinae).
Front fangs can be either fixed, movable or even foldable.
Most front-fanged snakes are able to kill humans with a venomous bite. However, there are a few front-fanged-species that are not considered dangerous.
Snakes with rear fangs:
These snakes have specialized fangs that are located in the rear jaw. Many different species of snakes have rear fangs and it is often unclear if, and to what degree bites os of venomous rear-fanged species affect human bite victims.
A few rear-fanged snakes species are able to kill humans with a venomous bite. However, most rear-fanged species are not considered dangerous.
Snakes with palatine fangs:
These snakes have palatine fangs. Many snakes have palatine teeth, but palatine fangs are rare.
Snakes without fang data:
We don't know if these snakes have fangs or not.
7. Can you describe the tail?
Prehensile tail:
A snake with a prehensile tail can use its tail to grasp and hold objects. This ability is especially useful for snakes that live in trees or bushes.
Non-prehensile tail:
A non-prehensile tail is not able to grasp and hold objects. Ground-living snakes usually have non-prehensile tails.
Our data records for non-prehensile tails are highly incomplete, because non-prehensile tails are seldomly described as such.
Paddle-shaped tail:
Paddle-shaped tails are useful for swimming but a major handicap when moving on land. Only sea snakes have paddle-shaped tails.
There are many other acquatic snakes which don't have paddle-shaped tails. These are not sea snakes.
Almost all sea-snakes are dangerously venomous. Consequently, any snake with a paddle-shaped tail should be treated with caution.
Rattle tail:
The only known snake family with rattle tails are rattlesnakes (subfamily: Crotalinae). All rattlesnakes are dangerously venomous. Any snake with a rattle tail should be treated with great caution.
Some rattlesnakes may not have a rattletail, e.g. if the rattle broke off. And there are tree-living rattlesnakes that have only a very rudimentary rattle.
Spider-shaped tail:
A spider-shaped tail is a very rare variant of tail shape. This tail is used for tail-baiting, the snake uses it to lure prey.
Shield-tail:
Shield-tail snakes (family: Uropeltidae) are snakes that have a large keratinous shield at the tip of the tail.
Spine-shaped tail:
Spine shaped tails end in a spine. Many blind snakes (family: Typhlopidae) have spine shaped tails.
Snakes without tail data:
We don't know what kind of tail these snakes have.
Be patient, the search is being executed...