How To Distinguish Venomous Snakes From Non-Venomous Ones

The mere mention of snakes is enough to send chills down the spine of a person. If any individual faces the bite of these serpents, it can turn out to be fatal for them. All snakes, however, are not venomous and thus do not cause any harm to someone with their bite. Therefore, we just need to identify which snakes are venomous and which are not and take the necessary steps according to them. According to a report published in Terminix, we need to observe four factors before deciding whether a snake is venomous or not. They are the behaviour and habitat of the snakes, colour, head and pupils.

Each species of snake exhibits different behaviour and live in varied habitats. For example- one of the most well-known traits can be observed in the rattlesnake. When threatened, rattlesnakes may shake the rattles on their tails to create a loud clicking sound as a warning to the predators. In the case of habitats, the best example is cottonmouths living in or near water. Thus, if there is a pond or swamp nearby, cottonmouth snakes could be observed in the area, depending on geographic location. Colours may not be a perfect method to distinguish between venomous and non-venomous snakes. This is because each type of snake contains many subspecies with size and colour variations. Venomous snakes also have a more triangular-shaped head in comparison to their non-poisonous counterparts.

The venomous snakes can also be distinguished by the pits on their heads. It will, however, be difficult to determine whether the snake has pits on its head from a distance or not. Another method that can be potentially dangerous is examining the pupils of the snake. It can be harmful because the pupils of the serpents can be observed only at a close range. The eyes of most venomous snakes are quite similar to the cat, i.e.- thin, black, vertical pupils surrounded by a yellow-green eyeball. The coral snake, however, has round pupils.

As per the World Health Organisation, there are more than 600 venomous species of snakes on the earth. Only 200 of them, however, can do any real damage to humans.