The most beautiful snakes in the world are snakes with stunning scales, vibrant colors, and impressive patterns. Some of these gorgeous snakes are venomous while others are non-venomous.
We all know this, that when these snakes are sighted, it is better to admire their beauty from far especially if we do not know if it is venomous or not.
Even though most times, we run away without anyone telling us, because snakes look scary to almost everyone at the very first glance. While non-venomous snakes that can serve as pets should be handled gently and not excessively so that they will not be stressed.
These are the top 20 world's most beautiful snakes (cool, colorful snakes & pictures), they are,
- San Francisco Garter Snake
- Blue Malayan Coral Snake
- Leucistic Texas Rat Snake
- Atheris Hispidia
- Blue Racer
- Emerald Tree Boa
- Arizona coral snake
- Eyelash viper
- Green pit viper
- Bloodred corn snake
And ten more stunning snakes. Check them out and learn about their fascinating facts as well.
Keep reading!
1. San Francisco Garter Snake
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| Image credit: reptilescove.com |
Native home: San Mateo County lines
Non-venomous Snakes
This snake is undeniably one of the most beautiful snakes in the world as well as it is regarded as the United States' most beautiful snake. It has a red head, with a turquoise blue and red-orange stripe pattern.
They can reach up to 3 feet (1 meter) or more in length. They are shy snakes that like to hurt in the evenings on California red-legged frogs. They are not dangerous, unlike rattlesnakes that are venomous. You can find this snake at a densely vegetated pond that is very close to the hillside.
This snake sometimes estivates during the winter. A female can give birth to 16 babies at once between the months of June to September. They are prey to herons, hawks, and other snakes. Their numbers are reducing due to habitat loss to agriculture and illegal collection because of their beauty.
2. Blue Malayan Coral Snake
Native home: Malaysia
Venomous Snakes
It is certainly one out of the most beautiful snakes in the world but highly venomous. Compared to other snakes, this snake has the largest venom glands. That stretches to over a quarter of its body length.
The worst thing about this snake is that it strikes quickly and its venom is fast-acting. It has a red head, dark blue to black dorsal. The snake can reach up to 1.8 meters in length.
It also uses its tail as a warning when disturbed by erecting it while coiling up. Although sometimes, they flee when disturbed. You can spot this snake in the lower montane area, lowland, and forest of Southeast Asia. It feeds mainly on other snakes.
3. Leucistic Texas Rat Snake
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| Image credit: kingsnake.com |
Native Home: United States (the State of Texas primarily)
Non-venomous Snakes
It is a subspecies of rat snake and it is a harmless colubrid snake. It is listed among the most beautiful snakes in the world because of its unique beauty which is as a result of leucism which is a phenotypes impaired melanin pigmentation in its skin appendages.
But the pigmentation of melanin in its eyes is not affected. Although they are found precisely in Texas, they can also be found in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
When they are fully matured, they can reach a length of 5 to 6 feet. They feed on rodents, eggs, birds, lizards, and more. The females normally lay about 20 eggs and will be hatch around 60 days. They have a life expectancy between 10 to 15 years.
4. Atheris Hispidia (African Hairy Bush Viper)
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| Image credit: Mark Kostich/Vetta/Getty Images |
Native home: Central Africa
Venomous Snakes
This snake is also known as rough-scaled bush viper and Spiny bush vipers. You can spot these snakes in tropical areas like swamps, woodlands, and rainforests. They are beautiful with colorful keeled scales on their bodies.
They have triangular broad shape heads with narrow heads and big eyes that its pupil is vertically elliptical. They like climbing trees and they are semi-arboreal creatures. They are venomous snakes in which their neurotoxic can cause organ hemorrhaging.
They are small snakes that can reach up to 29 inches in length. They are ovoviviparous snakes, they give birth to live young snakes and not eggs. They feed on small birds, lizards, frogs, mammals, and the likes. Their lifespan is unknown because they are far from people.
See also:
5. Blue Racer
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| Image credit: Nick Scobel/ Flickr |
Native Home: North and Central America
Non-venomous Snakes
It is an Eastern racer snake's subspecies and its scientific name is Coluber constrictor foxii. They are stunning blue-grey snakes as it is among the most beautiful snakes in the world and coolest snakes.
Their ventrals are whitish as well as they have a white-goldish face mask. They are long snakes that can reach up to 2 meters. Sometimes they can be easily frightened and they are very fast.
They look very similar to fox snakes when they are juveniles and as adults, they look like rat snakes. They are ground-dwelling snakes that can be found in fields and open forests. They feed on snakes, frogs, rodents and they are prey to foxes, coyotes, raccoons, and birds of prey.
6. Emerald Tree Boa
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| Image credit: alphacoders.com |
Native home: South America
Non-venomous Snakes
As the name suggests, they are tree-dwelling snakes. They are arboreal boa species. They are also viviparous or live-bearing snakes that is they do not lay eggs but give birth to babies. They prefer to be alone, they love a solitary lifestyle.
These snakes are nocturnal ambush hunters that love to coil up wait on branches above the ground. Their maximum length is 2 meters and on average they can weigh 1.5kg. They feed on small animals and rodents. They can live between 15 to 20 years.
7. Arizona Coral Snake
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| Image credit: David Jahn/ Wikimedia Commons |
Native home: central and southern Arizona, western Mexico
Venomous snake
They are small slender snakes that adults can reach at a length between 33 to 53 cm (13-21 inches). They are among the world's most beautiful snakes with broad alternating bands of black and red divided by thinner stripes of dazzling yellow or white.
Their belly is paler compares to other parts of their body. In their native home, you can spot them in farmland, grassland, woodland, desert scrub, and thorn scrub.
Their diet includes smaller smooth scalex snakes, lizards, and more. During the summer, they usually lay two eggs. Its venom is like that of a cobra but the delivery of the venom is less effective. This is due to the fact that it has a small mouth, a small fang of its small body. If bitten, medical attention should be sought right away.
8. Eyelash Viper
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| Image credit: Geoff Gallice |
Native home: Central and South America
Venomous Snakes
They are also known as Eyelash mountain viper, Schlegel's pit viper, and Eyelash lancehead. They are small-length size snakes between 55-82 CM. Its name, eyelash comes from the superciliary scales above the eyes. They are colorful snakes with a wide of coloration including, pink, green, brown, yellow, red, and combinations of those colors.
They are certainly one of the most beautiful snakes in the world. You can spot these snakes in tropical areas with dense foliage of low lower altitudes close to water. They are nocturnal solitary arboreal animals.
They are not aggressive in nature, when hunting, they will patiently wait for unsuspecting prey to wander by before they hunt on the prey. But fast to strike. Females give birth to live young snakes that can be 2 to 20. At the last stage of their pregnancy, females stop eating.
9. Green Pit Viper
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| Image credit: Biomedicinal/Wikimedia Commons |
Native home: Asia
Venomous Snakes
They are tree-dwelling snakes. As the name suggests, they have depression or pit between their nostril and their eyes which enables them to locate prey that is warmer because the pit is a heat detector.
They are either green or yellow as plain color or with some markings. They can reach a length of 0.9 meters (3 feet). They are one of the most captivating snakes in the world with vertical pupils on their golden eyes.
They are active at night, they may coil around tree branches or may hide under forest and if brushed, they will strike quickly. From the month of June to August, females give birth to young snakes. They eat frogs, birds, lizards, and other small animals.
See also:
10. Bloodred Corn Snake
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| Image credit: Don Soderberg / iansvivarium.com |
Native home: North America
Non-venomous Snakes
The name describes the snake, as it is blood red in color which is very rare for a snake to have such vibrant red coloration. With this, it is among beautiful snakes with its unique and vibrant appearance.
It is a subspecies of rat snake and morphs of a corn snake. Depending on the snake, the shades of the color defers, it can be more intense or faded. It might be surprising that the intense red coloration of this snake is a result of a lack of pigments.
Another feature of this snake is that they have recessive genes which result in their absence of ventral checkered .patterns. They are nocturnal animals that like to burrow and they can also climb trees. Their females lay two to three eggs per year.
11. Topaz Woma Python
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| Image credit: Pure reptiles / Facebook |
Native home: Australian forest
Non-venomous Snakes
They are highly skilled ambush hunters with striking appearance. Compares to other pythons they are slender and live on the ground. You can spot them in the sandy soil of desert, grassland, woodland, and shrubland.
They are nocturnal animals that feed on birds eggs, birds, other reptiles, and animals. Females lay between 5 to 19 eggs in their burrow between the months of May and August. It is among the threatened species.
12. Paradise Tree Snake
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| Image credit: Rushen |
Native home: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and part of the Philippines
Mildly venomous Snakes
It is a rare snake on the list of the most beautiful snakes in the world. They are long snakes that can reach up to 1.2 meters. They can be spotted in a variety of places like gardens, parks, and secondary forests.
They are active during the day and they have the ability to glide from one tree to the other. This is possible because they have a slender flattened body in which the ventral surface becomes concave.
With these features, they are also known as paradise-flying snakes. Although they don't fly like birds, instead they perform a sort of parachute jump. You can watch this video below to see how they are flying which is rare.
Like other snakes they are carnivorous, they eat birds, lizards, and other small mammals. Females lay about 6 to 11 eggs and snake babies that are about 15 to 20 cm long when they are hatched.
13. High Yellow Green Python
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| Image credit: ball-pythons.net |
Native home: Northeast Australia, Aru Islands, New Guinea, and Solomon Island
Non-venomous Snakes
They are different shades of green python with white or yellow vertebral stripes. On average they are 1.6 to 1.8 meters in length but the maximum length they can reach is 2.2 meters. Their female lays about 6 to 30 eggs that hatch between 45 to 52 days of incubation.
They attain maturity at the age of 3 and they can live for more than 20 years. They spend most of their time coiling around branches. This python looks and behaves like an emerald tree boa. But they have one opposite feature, this python female lay eggs while emerald green boa's female gives birth to babies.
See also:
14. Rainbow Boa
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| Image credit: Damien Farrell |
Native home: Amazon River basin, coastal Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, and southern Venezuela
Non-venomous Snakes
It is a terrestrial boa of medium size that gets its name from its iridescent skin that reflects a different kinds of colors. No questioning as regards these snakes among the world’s most beautiful snakes.
On their bodies are scales that act like prisms that bring about rainbow-colored effects. They are usually reddish-brown or brown Unlike other snakes, their maturity is determined by length and not by age.
Adults' length is usually between 1.2-1.8 meters, females are usually longer. In their native habitat, you can spot them in areas where there are humid woodland forests. Females can give birth to 12 to 25 babies at once. They too can live for 20 years in captivity.
15. Coast Garter Snake
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| Image credit: Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA |
Native home: Pacific coast of Oregon and California
Mild neurotoxic venomous snakes
It is one of the most charming snakes in the world with its reddish-orange lateral stripes and intense yellow dorsal stripe. Its dorsal too has stripes of reddish-orange with some black spots. It is a rare snake that you can spot in scrub areas, forests, marshes, places near streams and ponds.
Their females give birth to babies in the months of July to September. They are usually 45 cm to 105 cm (0.45 to 1.05 meters). They feed on snails, slugs, worms, and other small animals. These snakes do excrete a foul-smelling musk or saliva but they are regarded as being harmless.
16. White-lipped Python
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| Image credit: reptileadvisor.com |
Native home: Papua New Guinea and Indonesia islands
Non-venomous Snakes
They got their name from the brilliant white lips pattern on their head beside their mouth. They are stunning snakes with glossy black heads and iridescent sides. They are one of the most beautiful snakes in the world even with their intimidating jet-black head and golden-bronze bodies.
Iridophores are nanostructures that collect and reflect different colors of light, resulting in multicolored sparkles on the snake. They are very active, they do not hide or rest.
Their diet includes mice and rats. Adults can reach the length of 2 meters. Some keep these snakes as pets. Although they are not venomous some have reported their attacks. They can live for long for about 30 years.
17. Northern Scarlet Snake
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| Image credit: Glenn Bartolotti / Wikimedia Commons |
Native home: Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions, southeastern of United States
Non-venomous Snakes
They are small beautiful cool snakes that have just three colors. The colors are alternating red, black, and white or yellow bands that are rather slim. The banding pattern does not extend to the underside, the dorsal side can be white, pink, or grayish.
They are on average 51 cm (20 inches). You can find these snakes under debris or leaf-litters, rocks, or beneath logs. They feed mainly on reptile eggs, in fact, they use their big teeth to crack eggs that are too big for them to swallow.
18. Colombia Boa
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| Image credit: snakes for pet |
Native home: Central America, South America, and some islands in the Caribbean.
Non-venomous Snakes
They are big beautiful snakes also known as Common boa. They are terrestrial. They can grow to a maximum size length of 12 feet. Their scales are chocolate or chestnut brown in color with pale gray patches. The dorsal sides are yellowish with dark spots.
They feed on other large snakes, rodents, small rats, and chickens. Females bear 30 babies at once. Each baby is usually 61 cm (24 inches) in length. Their lifespan is between 20 to 30 years. Many people keep this snake as a pet because they hardly bite and their even temper.
See also:
19. King Cobra
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| Image credit: Hendrik Schlott / Unsplash |
Native home: India, southern China, and Southeast Asia
Venomous snakes
It is among but deadly. When they feel threatened, they can stand up by raising close to a quarter of their bodies off the ground and flaring out their hoods in order to attack. They will also make a hiss sound like a growling dog.
These snakes can have a maximum length of 18 feet. In their native home, you can spot them in plains and rainforests. Their coloration depends on their habitats. They are deaf snakes but can hear through the vibration they sense from the floor. T
hey are the world's only snakes in which they create nests for their eggs, which they fiercely protect till it hatchlings appear. A single bite that contains about two-tenths of a fluid ounce can kill 20 people or an elephant. They have an average lifespan of 20 years.
20. Eastern Corn Snakes
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| Image credit: Dustin Miller |
Native home: Florida and the southeastern United States, from southern New Jersey to Louisiana
Non-venomous Snakes
These stunning snakes are yellow or orange with large red patches on the back. Their dorsal side is black and white. On their neck and head is spear-shaped patterns.
All this brings them to the list of the most beautiful snakes in the world. Their adults' length is about 75 to 120 cm. Females lay up to 30 eggs and babies will hatch after 62 to 65 days.
They are recognized as good pets and they help in curbing rodents in garages and barns. They feed on small birds, eggs, and other small animals. You can find them in abandoned houses, barns, meadows, and rock hills. They have a lifespan of 23 years.
What are your thoughts about the world’s most beautiful snakes? Let us hear from you in the comments section below (Post a comment). Please share this article and subscribe to our mailing list. Thanks for reading!
I don't like looking at snakes, but these ones are actually captivating.
ReplyDeleteYes, snakes can be scary, yet these ones are beautiful.
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