Snakes

All 26 species of snakes on WAnimals

Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Conservation status

Where they live

Recorded in 143 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Where to see them

Did you know…?

• It is genuinely amphibious: it hunts eels on the reef but comes ashore to digest, shed its skin and lay its eggs, something the true sea snakes cannot do because they have lost their belly scales.

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• Its venom is several times more potent than a cobra's, but it is so docile and its mouth so small that fishermen in the Philippines and Fiji routinely handle it by hand.

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• It hunts in partnership with groupers and goatfish: the snake goes into the crevices of the reef and the fish wait outside for the prey that flee, an association documented between very different species.

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• It copies the pattern of the coral snakes without being venomous; a popular vivarium animal.

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• Its bands of colour closely resemble those of the true venomous coral snakes, a case of defensive mimicry in an animal that is not venomous itself.

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• Its name comes from a false superstition: farmers found it in their barns and believed it was suckling from the cows' udders, when in fact it was hunting the mice the grain attracted. No snake can suckle.

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• One of the most dangerous snakes in Australia; it flattens its neck when threatened.

Ecosystems