| 1 | Painted bronzeback |
One of the most commonly encountered snakes in Singapore. Painted bronzebacks are commonly found resting on low bushes and branches, skirting away rapidly when human beings edge too close. They’re found in 60-70% of Singapore, including urbans areas, as long as there’s plenty of vegetation. Instead of slashing your way into a forest, you can easily find this snake on bushes outside a police station or hotel.
Painted bronzebacks measure 60cm, and are non-venomous with a skittish personality. There’s no threat from this snake whatsoever. They bite humans once in a blue moon, and they don’t need to, give how fast they can dart away. Painted bronzebacks prey mainly on frogs, one of their favourites in Singapore being the copper cheeked frog.
Dendrelaphis pictus is often spotted warming itself on large, broad leaves in the morning, or scrabbling over rotting logs. One of the best places to find them is the Singapore Botanical Gardens. Painted bronzebacks have a brown head and a creamy chin, divided by a black stripe running through the eye. They have one of the redder tongues of any snake, and their pupils are round.
| 2 | Banded flying snake |
This 70cm species is mainly found in central Singapore, particularly the ring of untouched nature parks surrounding its forested centre. The banded flying snake is a southerly relative of the golden tree snake, one of Thailand’s most commonly sighted snakes. Banded flying snakes can reach 100 metres in flight, achieved by elongating their vertebrae sideways, creating a reversed U-shaped body which captures air pockets underneath. These flying skills are mainly used to capture geckos which they spot on distant branches. While this is technically gliding rather than flying, it’s still extremely disturbing to watch.
Banded flying snakes dislike urbanisation and stay away from Singapore’s bustling cities, with rural gardens being the manmade limit. Top spots include the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Windsor and Thomson Nature Parks, and Lower and Upper Peirce Reservoir Parks.
Banded flying snakes (Chrysopelea pelias) are easily recognisable due to the white bands covering their back at regular intervals, and a colourful splashing of red inbetween. Most of their body is grey, interspersed with fine snowy lines bordering some scales. This species coexists with the paradise flying snake in Singapore, but this is easy to separate, as it has speckles rather than bands.
| 3 | Western mangrove catsnake |
One of Singapore’s largest snakes. Western mangrove catsnakes (Boiga melanota) reach 2.5 metres with ease, and have moderately thick bodies. This snake likes to drape itself over branches for many hours at a time, and are particularly common in central Singapore. Hangouts include Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Windsor Nature Park, and Lower Peirce Reservoir Park. They’re most commonly sighted along lake shores surrounded by forests, as they prefer to rest on branches directly over deep water, allowing them to dive rapidly into the depths when escaping.
Western mangrove catsnakes are easily recognisable by their vividly contrasting black and yellow colours. This is also true for their face, with a black cap and a yellow jaw streaked with black lines.
Its closest relative is the gold-ringed catsnake (Boiga dendrophila) of Borneo, which has no recorded deaths, but can cause intense swelling in humans. The western mangrove catsnake was originally a subspecies of Boiga dendrophila, but became its own official species in 2020. The yellow-black colours were identical, but the Singapore version lacked yellow spots over the dark belly scales, and the yellow stripes never joined together on the spine.
| 4 | Reticulated python |
Being the largest snake in the world, it’s hard to miss the reticulated python wherever they go. This brute is spread across almost all of Singapore, particularly in urban areas. The reticulated python has taken to using Singapore’s sewer system for transport, slithering around underground tunnels and popping their heads up through storm drains.
In fact, they prefer sewers over the bustling streets above, where they could get run over. In 2021, a Singapore reticulated python poked its head out of a coffee shop toilet, terrifying the owners. Another foolishly climbed 15 feet high and ended up tangled around some festive lights over a street, forcing snake rescuers to step in.
One of their countryside hotspots is the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, established in 1989. Located in northwest Singapore, this is a place of mangrove forests where binocular-wielding tourists can watch birds from wooden boardwalks. Reticulated pythons also appear on Singapore’s train tracks and in golf courses. The Windsor and Thomson nature parks are another two hotspots, while Boon Lay Place is a residential area where they’re common. Being mammal-eaters, reticulated pythons are actually benefitting Singapore overall, by keeping rat populations suppressed.
| 5 | King cobra |
The most dangerously venomous snake in Singapore. King cobras are far less common in Singapore than equatorial spitting cobras, and their numbers are falling. They cope decently with agricultural areas, but avoid urbanised streets and sewers.
One of the king cobra’s hotspots in Singapore is the 10.3 kilometre MacRitchie Nature Trail. The trail is popular with joggers, and travels through a winding corridor of green foliage, including a 250 metre bridge with superb views of wildlife. However, one group got a shock in 2021 when a branch started randomly weighing downwards. Closer inspection revealing a green-tinged king cobra, which could have easily landed on their heads.
In another video, a king cobra was filmed sneaking up on a reticulated python, preparing to inflict a savage bite. But the python fought back, and the two wrestled for 20 minutes before the exhausted cobra fled into the bushes. King cobras in Singapore seem to love the taste of reticulated pythons generally – more battles have been spotted at Dairy Farm Nature Park and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Perhaps this is why the pythons have fled to urban areas.
| 6 | Equatorial spitting cobra |
A member of the true cobra family (Naja), unlike the king cobra which belongs to the Ophiophagous family. Equatorial spitting cobras have a slightly less deadly bite, but can spit venom into your eyes with deadly accuracy.
Unlike king cobras, they’re common in Singapore’s leafy suburbs, even dense housing estates. Equatorial spitting cobras have even popped up in cemeteries in Choa Chu Kang (northwest Singapore), making the rows of graves even spookier. Everyone in Singapore has a story to tell about this cobra. In 2023, a king cobra faced off with a gang of otters in an urban park. The otters crawled to the shore as though wanting to adopt the black cobra into their gang, but the snake was having none of it. It raised its chest and angled its head forward menacingly, while the otters seemed to realise the danger and started circling the king cobra like a hurricane.
Eventually they gave up and jumped back into the lake, and the cobra lived up to its side of the bargain by slithering away. Equatorial spitting cobras often invade homes; in 2018 a Singapore maid was forced to whack one to death with a broom handle. Equatorial spitting cobras are usually full black, with a pink tongue, but sometimes have a white stripe on their chest.
| 7 | Brown kukri snake |
This species dwells in Singapore’s leafy forests, away from the honking cars and pedestrian crossings of housing estates. The brown kukri snake (Oligodon purpurascens) is a shy species which sticks to the ground and often burrows into the soil using its narrow snout. When above ground, Oligodon purpurascens commonly hides beneath rocks, and they measure a maximum of 90cm. Finding this Singapore snake is something of an expedition; you’d have to venture into the woods and start upturning every rock and log you find.
Oligodon purpurascens varies in colour, with two common morphs. The first is brown with multiple darker brown bands, each with a near black outline. The second is red with orange bands, and a bright red belly. Despite looking so different, these morphs aren’t a separate subspecies, and they commonly coexist in the woods of Singapore.
Brown kukri snakes cover Singapore, peninsular Malaysia, and just reach extreme southern Thailand. Oligodon purpurascens is recognisable by a dark band that begins at the corner of the mouth, crosses diagonally through the eye, and ends on the forehead.
| 8 | Dwarf reed snake |
The dwarf reed snake (Pseudorabdion longiceps) is a non-venomous snake which inhabits southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia, but has a stronghold in Singapore. This is a very shy species, which spends a large percentage of its life underground, and commonly hides in rotting logs when they do venture to the surface. They measure just 20cm, and one of their weirdest skills is that they cartwheel to avoid capture.
Though dotted all over Singapore, dwarf reed snakes (Pseudorabdion longiceps) aren’t encountered commonly. Their main base is Bukit Timah nature reserve. This forest sanctuary is located in central Singapore, surrounded by residential areas on all sides, and has so many monkeys (specifically crab-eating Macaques) that visitors are warned not to feed them.
Pseudorabdion longiceps can often be seen poking their humble heads out of puddles, with their scales flashing iridescent rainbow colours in response to light. The Singapore Botanical gardens are another place you might spot them. Dwarf reed snakes rarely attempt to bite, and have such tiny mouths that they would probably fail if they did.
| 9 | Black-headed collared snakes |
Another staple of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, which is probably forced to weave in and out of cackling monkeys in order to survive, pretending to ignore them. This is a non-venomous snake, which has no power even to make your fingertip swell up.
Black-headed collared snakes (Sibynophis melanocephalus) are easy to recognise thanks to a dense black head, and a red upper body which gradually transitions to grey lower down. Its chin and snout are white, which contrasts sharply against their black cap. Sibynophis melanocephalus moves by day, and almost never climbs trees. They’re particularly at home in freshwater swamps surrounded on all sides by forests.
Sibynophis melanocephalus constantly ends up as roadkill on Singapore’s forest roads, mainly because of an unfortunate tendency to freeze when confronted by enemies, including bright oncoming headlights. In forests, this works in their favour, as they have supreme camouflage against a backdrop of fallen twigs and brown leaves (see this pic). Black-collared snakes are also found in peninsular Malaysia and the southern reaches of Thailand.
| 10 | Mangrove pitviper |
The most common venomous pitviper in Singapore. Mangrove pitvipers (Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus) reside in shallow watery habitats with thick reed clumps sticking up (AKA mangroves), and are rare across most of Singapore. However, they have two strongholds where you can barely move without stepping on one. The first is the protected Sungei Buloh wetland reserve in the northwest, where they live alongside reticulated pythons and scores of migrating birds, often from as far as Siberia. Mangrove pitvipers have a near black colour and should be visible from the wooden boardwalks with binoculars.
The other is in the Pasir Ris Park of Singapore’s northeast. This mangrove-heavy reserve is swarming with them, and happens to lie directly adjacent to the notorious Pasir Ris suicide tower, officially a bird-watching tower but now an icon of superstition, said to be haunted.
Stay back if you can, as Mangrove pitvipers have a nasty venom which causes severe swelling and intense pain almost immediately post bite. There’s no specific antivenom, but luckily, its toxins overlap with the white-lipped pitviper, which does have an antivenom, allowing for cross-neutralisation between the species.