PLEASE NOTE THAT SNAKE SPECIES IN DIFFERENT AREAS MAY VARY ESPECIALLY IN COLOR. AND PATTERN. TO CATER FOR ALL IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. THIS SITE CAN THIS NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HERE OR THE PRECISE ACCURACY THEREOF.

This site only attempt to cover the most commonly found venomous snakes. There are many other snakes out there, venomous and non-venomous that are not covered in this site.

SNAKES

Snakes, (reptiles/serpentes) are an important part of nature. Unfortunately, because of many reasons they have a bad reputation. One of the main reasons for this are that they have the ability to bite, inject venom and in many instances kill. It is how they hunt (and defend) themselves. There are many different snake species identified and many are native to only some geographical areas. Others are found in a wide range of areas. Some are venomous and others not. Some are more venomous than others. Still there are others that are not of the most venomous around but nonetheless extremely dangerous because the high likelihood to be bitten by them is higher.

SO WHY IS SNAKE IDENTIFICATION IMPORTANT?

When you or someone close to you get bitten by a snake, right identification of the snake responsible for the bite can save that persons life.

Doctors and medical personnel will know what treatment to administer as well as what anti-venom to give the patient if the responsible snake specie have been identified. This in many instances may save the life of the person as the longer snake venom take to get treated properly after the bite, the more damage it will do. Some snake venom also have a different reaction to others on on the body and cause different effects to take place which may need to be treated differently. So you can clearly see that identifying the snake can be very important indeed.

Now it certainly would be impossible to identify all the snakes there are or to know them all. Good luck to you if you want to do that. There are just too many species, sub species and lengths and colors to remember for the average bloke. The best thing to do would be to to understand what snakes you are most likely to encounter in a certain place or situation. Time of the day or year can also be important as snakes are more active during certain times of the year and their breeding season. I do not think you would like to be disturbed when girl hunting and neither would they. Besides, if another guy just stole your girl you would be in a bad mood too!

What snakes to identify

It is important that you learn what snakes you are most likely to encounter. Some areas have a denser snake population than others. The time of the year also makes a difference. Snakes are more active in warmer weather and will be encountered more as they are cold blooded. Many of the snakes found are also non venomous. It is better to learn what snakes, especially the venomous ones, are native to the area where you are and how to identify them.

In Africa many venomous snakes are found. So I will first consider some of them here. But do not just look out for a snakes that are venomous. You need to know which ones are most DANGEROUS. These are the ones that you will find a high probability to encounter or that have a high probability to bite. A snake may also not be that venomous but treatment for its bite may be difficult, making its bite life threatening.

Information on this site is based on region more than anything else. The basic information to identify snake species are given and some of the colors may vary. This site also cannot cater for ALL snake species are their are just too many. The snake identification information is more the most for the most common types found.