| 1 | Common wolf snake |
A 75cm snake with no venom, which is found in forests either on the ground or in low bushes. Common wolf snakes (Lycodon capucinus) are found throughout the whole of Thailand; there’s no region where you can’t watch their chocolatey bodies disappearing into the undergrowth. They often inhabit bungalows next to forests, and have a tendency to fall into crates and be transported hundreds of miles to outlying islands by boat.
The most unusual feature of common wolf snakes is their enlarged front teeth, which prevent lizard prey from escaping their mouth like a pair of prison bars. Their rear teeth are blade-like, designed to slice through and weaken the captive lizard. Between the two, they have smaller yet equally jagged teeth, which identify and grip gaps between the lizard’s scales.
Common wolf snakes also eat frogs and mice, but are so dependent on reptiles that when they were accidentally introduced to Christmas Island, the local lizard population plummeted. Having such large teeth gives their head a more rounded appearance than other wolf snakes. This is a chocolatey brown snake covered with snowy white speckles. In certain remote forest spots, Lycodon capucinus can be albino coloured.
| 2 | Painted bronzeback |
This harmless species is found across the whole of Thailand. It feeds on lizards, and amphibians such as copper-cheeked frogs and field frogs, foraging energetically rather than ambushing.
Dendrelaphis pictus stays away from dense forests. Instead, it’s a forest edge species, and this has made it naturally adaptable to a wide variety of manmade habitats, as long as trees are standing. Painted bronzebacks can be found in gardens, parks, villages and bushland. They’re also day-faring rather than nocturnal, all of which combines to make them one of Thailand’s most commonly encountered snakes.
Painted bronzebacks are twitchy, and will normally flee fast if humans approach. If cornered, they open their mouth wide, and loll out their bright red tongue, which is especially long. They also rear up, stretch their neck scales and reveal a sudden patch of turquois, which aims to startle predators and send them fleeing. Painted bronzebacks have large eyes, though not as massive as their fellow Thai family member, Wall’s bronzeback. You can identify this 60cm species by the following: a dark brown back, a creamy belly, brown irises with round pupils, and a black stripe running through the eye.
| 3 | Sunbeam snake |
The sunbeam snake is famous both for its colourful iridescent scales, and being on a very distant perch of the evolutionary tree, not just within Thailand, but the whole world. Their closest living relative is believed to be the Mexican burrowing python halfway across the planet. Sunbeam snakes are chocolatey brown, but under bright light, every colour of the rainbow starts swirling.
If they were venomous, this would be a decent strategy for mesmerising their awed prey while they lunge. Fortunately, sunbeam snakes don’t possess one drop of venom. They’re a constricting snake instead, which takes 5 minutes to asphyxiate and swallow a toad, occasionally up to 30 minutes. Sunbeam snakes mainly come out after, not during heavy rains. They often appear in rice paddies and guava plantations, or paths adjacent to them.
Sunbeam snakes rarely bite even when picked up. Their main defensive trick is to coil themselves up tightly and vibrate, sometimes so hard that they produce a buzzing sound. Every so often, people are lucky enough to stumble across this colourful snake, and luckily it’s perfectly safe to stare at them.
| 4 | Oriental ratsnake |
One of Thailand’s most common snakes. Oriental ratsnakes can reach 3.7 metres, making them Thailand’s third biggest snake. They’re found in countryside and city alike; walking past this snake in Thailand is about as noteworthy as walking past a field full of sheep. The oriental ratsnake is extremely adventurous, and doesn’t understand the concept of caution. They slither down pavements as though they have just as much right to as you, and eat onions without thinking.
Fortunately, this manic activity doesn’t come with a nasty helping of venom. Oriental ratsnakes (Ptyas mucosus) have myths surrounding them, such as being the wife to the king cobra’s husband. They also whip people with their tails and cast a dark spell over farmland, but we don’t have to tell you that these rumours are false.
Oriental ratsnakes do have a particularly demented method of killing their mammal prey: sitting on them. However, given that they weigh 5.5 pounds at a length of 2.3 metres, there’s no need to worry. This fast, agile snake has a diet split between mammals and amphibians, and the only danger is if you pick one up, forcing them to thrash and bite to free themselves.
| 5 | Red bamboo snake |
The kukri snake family has 20 members in Thailand, but red-bamboo snakes are the sole member of the family Oreocryptophis. This 70cm species likes thick, mulchy forests, where the floor is heavily strewn with moss and leaves. They can appear at high altitudes of 2600 metres, and compared to other Thai snakes, they prefer cooler conditions. This is a shy snake, a Thai equivalent to the US scarlet snake. They commonly rest under natural shelters like rotting logs or forest rock piles. Its Latin name of Oreocryptophis translates to “secretive mountain snake”.
The red-bamboo snake has two narrow black lines stretching vertically down the head, until the neck. Afterwards, the bands become horizontal, encircling their thin body. The colour pattern varies, as the underlying pattern is always bright red, but the bands can either be a paler red, or dense black, as though instantly filled in using Microsoft paint.
This is a sought after snake in captivity, for its docile temperament, happiness to swallow endless mice, and bright red colours. This snake is totally non-aggressive, rarely biting even when picked up. They kill their prey via constriction, and reach a female maximum of 100cm.
| 6 | Dark wolf snake |
This harmless snake also belongs to the Lycodon family of the common wolf snake, but is far less widespread. It’s one of the largest wolf snakes, reaching 1.7 metres, but is confined to the forests of southern Thailand. Until 2011 when more were added, there were only 2 confirmed locations in Thailand, with more in Malaysia.
Dark wolf snakes (Lycodon albofuscus) are neither restricted to trees nor ground – forests are the only lifeblood they need. However, they have a vague connection to streams and are normally found within 500 metres of one. In National park areas such as Panan forest, they’ve been spotted foraging along sandy riverbanks, overshadowed by canopies. They’re a nocturnal snake whose diet mainly consists of lizards and amphibians. Its belly is creamy, while its near black body barely has any patterns at all, just thin white lines like a crack between a curtain.
The dark wolf snake has strongly keeled scales, rough to touch. They have vertical pupils, but their scales and eyes are so dark that you’d be pushed to tell.
| 7 | White-spotted slug snake |
The Pareas slug-eating family has 27 members, and the white-spotted slug snake is the most common member in Thailand. Spotted slug-eating snakes are easy to recognise thanks to their round, black eyes, and a neck collar that varies from cream to light orange. They have a pink tongue, but elsewhere, it’s a pure stony colour, with grey, black and white alternating like a dark mosaic. Their maximum length is 47cm.
White-spotted slug snakes are spread across the entire country, particularly on moist forest floors and at altitudes below 900 metres. The one exception is cities, including Bangkok itself.
Pareas margaritophorus is normally found on low vegetation, like their slug prey. This snake also eats snails, and has a special jaw for extracting them from shells. The teeth on their right side are more developed than the left, as the snails they prey on have shell entrances curving to the right. This harmless snake is often found near water, but nevertheless sticks to land. They’re a nocturnal species which moves slowly, and lacks even a weak venom.
| 8 | Yellow-striped trinket snake |
The south-easterly cousin of the trinket snake (Coelognathus helena) of India, which doesn’t reach Thailand. Yellow-striped trinket snakes are most common in southern Thailand, but have a smattering of sightings around the centre. They also inhabit Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Burma. Coelognathus flavolineatus is easy to identify, thanks to a vivid yellow stripe following the line of its spine. They also have two jet black stripes starting from their eye: one pouring straight down, and one at an 8 o’clock angle. They can reach 1.8 metres, and their body darkens as the tail approaches.
Yellow-striped trinket snakes possess no venom at all, although they might snap aggressively in a warning. This snake can climb trees, but sticks to the ground, as evidenced by the fact they’re often found as roadkill with tyre marks over their back. On the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Coelognathus flavolineatus was spotted being eaten by a king cobra, and this almost certainly happens in Thailand too. But being a yellow-striped trinket snake has advantages as well. They’re a flexible snake which can dine on rodents, lizards and birds alike, and zoom around parks, forests, or gardens to their heart’s content.
| 9 | Elegant bronzeback |
Another bronzeback family member, this is easy to tell apart from the painted bronzeback. Elegant bronzebacks (Dendrelaphis formosus) have established their serpent stronghold in the south of Thailand, being absent around Bangkok. The appearance is a particular giveaway. They share the brown-bronze back, but their belly is a bright green, rather than the painted bronzeback’s cream. Their irises are also green, instead of brown, while their tongue is juicy red with a black tip.
The elegant bronzeback mostly lives in forest, preferring lowland rainforests below 600 metres in altitude, rather than misty mountainous rainforest. They lack any form of venom, not even a secret anticoagulant toxin in their saliva. They’re also easy to handle when picked up, snapping briefly, but calming down rapidly.
Elegant bronzebacks are semi-arboreal, hunting on the ground but sleeping on branches or the tops of large bushes. Rather than balancing precariously, elegant bronzebacks curl their thin bodies around the branch at multiple points. This snake measures 60-100cm and preys on lizards. While thick forests are their home, they stray to forest edges as well.
| 10 | Collared reed snake |
This non-venomous snake is rarely seen, yet found across the whole of Thailand. Variable reed snakes measure 49cm at the most and are burrowers, which never climb trees and stick to the ground exclusively. Their main habitats are forests, and while they dislike water, they’ve been spotted on the ground near rocky areas of waterfalls, such as Sungai Buweh waterfall in Malaysia.
The collared reed snake (Calamaria pavimentata) has complex yet ordered patterns with a mildly iridescent sheen, with shades of green and blue manifesting in the light. Before the neck, a random creamy patch begins. At the neck itself, a dense brown patch kicks in, before the creamy colour returns on the snake’s chin, and brown on the top of its head. Their belly is also creamy, contrasting against the brown back.
Calamaria pavimentata has beady black eyes, and belongs to the same Calamaria family as the pink-headed reed snake, a classic blue coral snake mimic. This is a Thai equivalent of the US night snake: a species which is everywhere, yet flies under everyone’s nose because of its secretive habits. Even with modern science, we know little about them – hence why we’re mainly talking about their appearance.