A cool little viper with horn-like scales above the eyes. That’s a common thing with arboreal vipers in Central and South America, but vipers with “horns” are relatively few in comparison. They’re closely related to other montane vipers in the area that have similar structures, but live more familiar lives in steep, heavily vegetated forests. […]

A Greater Green Snake (Ptyas major) we saw in Hong Kong several years ago.

A Banded Sandsnake from my own backyard. These are tiny, even as adults. This one is a bit shorter than a pencil, and likely won’t get any bigger. They eat invertebrates, don’t bite, and are completely harmless to people and pets. They’re also very often mistaken for Western Groundsnakes, which look superficially similar.

One of many Nose-horned Vipers (Vipera ammodytes) we found in Greece a few years ago. This one is about to shed its skin in coming days, indicated by the clouded eye scale.

A Longnosed Snake cruising around in the low light at the end of the day. These snakes are most often nocturnal, but may be found in the early morning or late afternoon, especially in the Spring. Against the chaotic, rocky backdrop of desert pavement between sandy plains, its shape breaks up, and spotting it can […]

We found this Twin Spotted Rattlesnake high in the mountains of southeastern Arizona. These tiny rattlesnakes are sometimes seen by hikers visiting the sky islands, finding them scurrying off trails at high elevation. They’re usually only around a foot and a half long as adults and quick to exit if anyone shows up – a […]

A copperhead from the western edge of their range in Texas.

A close of of a Longnosed Snake’s namesake. These snakes are commonly mistaken as kingsnakes, even by (especially by!) the born and raised locals. There is a superficial resemblance, especially when they are in the purely black and white form. However, these red eyes, pointed snout, and red/orange bands are their own thing entirely. Longnosed […]

A Mojave Rattlesnake from the Phoenix area. This brown and tan color is typical of this species in the area, though some of the more famously greenish ones do pop up as well. This one follows all the rules, with a clearly visible tail with bands of a roughly 2:1 white to black ratio, half […]

A California Kingsnake from an interesting pocket of Sonoran Desert influence near the Arizona/Utah border. “kingsnakes keep rattlers away!!!” – a common, and incorrect, myth of the desert. Kingsnakes do eat rattlesnakes, but that’s far from all that they eat. In a dietary study examining the stomach contents of 2,662 kingsnakes, rattlesnakes made up just […]