Smooth Snake

• Males live markedly longer than females — up to 25 years against 15.
• It catches lizards and other vertebrates by constriction.
• It is often mistaken for the adder despite being entirely harmless.
• It is not venomous: it kills by constriction, something uncommon among European snakes. It holds its prey with its teeth and coils its body around it.
• It eats mainly small lizards and other reptiles, including the young of other snakes.
• It is constantly confused with the viper, and that confusion costs many individuals their lives. It can be told apart by its round pupil — the viper's is vertical — and by its smooth rather than keeled dorsal scales.
• It is ovoviviparous: the eggs develop inside the female and the young are born fully formed, wrapped in a membrane they break through straight away.
• It is among the hardest European snakes to see despite being widely distributed, and in the United Kingdom it is one of the most strictly protected reptile species.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (reptile)

Habitat & environment

Heath, sunny rocky slopes and woodland edges across much of Europe as far as the Caucasus

Birth weight

Exact weight at birth not found as a precise figure

Size at birth

Precocial, born live and fully formed

Sexual maturity

4 years

Gestation / incubation

Internal gestation; the young born live (ovoviviparity) towards the end of summer

Litter / clutch size

4 to 15 young per litter

Lifespan in captivity

Documented record of up to 15-20 years in captivity

Sources consulted: British Herpetological Society (longevity study); A-Z Animals; ResearchGate (reproduction probabilities study); Animalia.bio; Britannica; PMC (age-dependent shelter use study)