34 Types of Snakes in Africa: Pythons, Mambas, Cobras, and Vipers
October 23, 2026
Africa is home to more than 400 documented snake species, spread across rainforests, savannas, deserts, and mountain slopes from the Mediterranean coast to the Cape of Good Hope. Among the many types of snakes in Africa, only a fraction are dangerous to people, yet those few species shape how an entire continent thinks about the animals moving through its grass and rock piles. This guide walks through 34 species that any wildlife-minded traveler, researcher, or venomous-snake-curious reader should be able to recognize on sight.
Some of these snakes, like the black mamba and puff adder, are familiar even to people who have never set foot on the continent. Others, like the shovel-snouts and egg-eaters, rarely make headlines but play outsized roles in controlling rodent and reptile populations. Readers in the United States who already know their local species, including Arizona’s rattlesnakes, will notice familiar patterns here: ambush predators, mimics, and burrowers that solved similar problems in very different landscapes.
1. African Rock Python
The African rock python (Python sebae) is the largest snake on the continent and one of the biggest species in the world. The largest snake in Africa, Python sebae averages 3 to 5 m in length. African rock pythons occur throughout sub-Saharan Africa, although they avoid the driest deserts and the coolest mountain elevations.
According to the Lincoln Park Zoo, African rock pythons are the largest snakes in Africa, averaging up to 16.5 feet long and weighing up to 121 pounds. Despite the intimidating size, SafariBookings notes that like all pythons, this snake is non-venomous, killing prey by constriction rather than venom. The zoo also reports that these constrictors are nocturnal and relatively solitary except during breeding season, and are also considered aggressive when feeding and if threatened. Travelers wanting the full picture of the continent’s biggest reptiles can compare this species against the rest of the largest snakes in Africa.
2. Black Mamba
The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is widely considered the most feared elapid on the continent, though its reputation runs ahead of its actual coloring. A study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health notes that the black mamba ranks consistently as one of the most revered snakes in sub-Saharan Africa, with potent neurotoxic venom that causes rapid onset and severe clinical manifestations.
Despite the name, A-Z Animals explains that despite its name, it is typically olive to grey-brown; the “black” refers to the dark interior of its mouth displayed in threat behavior. A clinical review in the journal Clinical Toxicology found that the black mamba is, due to its extremely toxic venom, one of the most dangerous snake species in Sub-Saharan Africa, with symptom onset usually occurring within 60 minutes. Research from the University of Michigan’s Animal Diversity Web adds that it is capable of delivering enough venom to kill a human being within 20 minutes. Readers who want the fuller context of regional danger rankings can check the most venomous snakes in Africa.
Important Note: Black mamba envenomation is a medical emergency. Anyone bitten should seek emergency care and antivenom immediately rather than relying on home remedies. This article is for educational identification purposes only and is not medical or first-aid guidance.
3. Western Green Mamba
The Western green mamba (Dendroaspis viridis) occupies the coastal forests and woodlands of West Africa, from Senegal through to Benin. Unlike its black-mouthed relative, this species is bright green from head to tail, which helps it disappear into the forest canopy where it spends most of its life.
Though less infamous than the black mamba, the Western green mamba carries a potent neurotoxic venom and should never be approached. It hunts birds, bats, and small mammals, often ambushing prey from dense foliage rather than chasing it across open ground.
4. Eastern Green Mamba
The Eastern green mamba (Dendroaspis angusticeps) replaces its western cousin along the coastal belt of East and southern Africa, from Kenya down through Mozambique and into KwaZulu-Natal. It favors the same arboreal lifestyle, sheltering in thick coastal forest and plantation trees.
Bites from this species are rarer than those from puff adders or spitting cobras simply because the snake is shy and spends most of its time well above ground. Its venom is still medically significant, combining neurotoxic and cardiotoxic components that make any bite worth treating as an emergency.
5. Puff Adder
The puff adder (Bitis arietans) has one of the widest distributions of any African snake, stretching from the southern tip of the continent up through most of sub-Saharan Africa and into the Arabian Peninsula. Its name comes from the loud hissing display it performs when threatened, inflating its body and exhaling sharply.
Thick-bodied and slow-moving, the puff adder relies on camouflage rather than flight, which is part of why it is involved in so many accidental bites: it simply does not move out of the way of approaching feet. Readers comparing viper families across continents, including how many types of rattlesnakes exist in the Americas, will notice both groups share this same ambush-and-wait strategy, just with different fang mechanics.
Pro Tip: Puff adders are often mistaken for sticks or rocks because of their mottled brown-and-cream pattern. Scan the ground in short sections rather than walking while looking only at the horizon, especially on game trails at dusk.
6. Mozambique Spitting Cobra
The Mozambique spitting cobra (Naja mossambica) ranges across southeastern Africa, from southern Tanzania down through Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and into South Africa’s Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. It is one of the most frequently encountered venomous snakes around rural homes in the region, often entering outbuildings in search of rodents.
This cobra’s venom is predominantly cytotoxic, causing severe local tissue damage rather than the fast-acting paralysis seen in mamba bites. True to its name, it can eject venom in fine jets toward a perceived threat’s eyes from more than a meter away, a defense that makes eye protection important for anyone working in areas where the species is common.
7. Cape Cobra
The Cape cobra (Naja nivea) is restricted to the drier western half of southern Africa, including the Karoo, the Northern Cape, and parts of Namibia and Botswana. Coloration varies enormously between individuals, from pale yellow to speckled brown to near-black, which can make field identification tricky even for experienced observers.
Unlike the Mozambique spitting cobra, the Cape cobra delivers a primarily neurotoxic bite that can cause respiratory failure if untreated. It is considered one of the most medically significant snakes in South Africa and is frequently involved in bites to farm dogs and livestock as well as people.
8. Egyptian Cobra
The Egyptian cobra (Naja haje) is one of the largest cobra species on the continent, found across North Africa and down through the Sahel into parts of East Africa. It has long been associated with ancient Egyptian iconography, where cobra imagery appeared on royal headdresses as a symbol of protection and authority.
Despite the cultural weight attached to this species, its biology is straightforward: it is a nocturnal hunter of rodents, toads, and other snakes, and its neurotoxic venom is potent enough to require urgent antivenom treatment. It favors semi-arid savanna and can also be found near irrigation canals and farmland where prey is abundant.
9. Gaboon Viper
The Gaboon viper (Bitis gabonica) is the heaviest viper in Africa and holds the record for the longest fangs of any snake on Earth, reaching lengths that let it deliver venom deep into prey tissue. It lives in the rainforests and forest edges of West and Central Africa, where its intricate geometric pattern of browns, purples, and tans provides near-perfect camouflage against leaf litter.
Despite carrying an enormous venom yield, the Gaboon viper is famously placid and slow to strike compared to many smaller vipers. Most bites occur when someone steps directly on the animal, since its stillness and camouflage make it almost invisible until it is underfoot.
10. Rhinoceros Viper
The rhinoceros viper (Bitis nasicornis), sometimes called the river jasper, shares much of its range with the Gaboon viper across West and Central African forests. Its most distinctive feature is a cluster of enlarged, horn-like scales projecting from the tip of its snout, giving the species its common name.
Coloration tends toward vivid blues, greens, and yellows arranged in a checkered pattern, making this one of the most visually striking vipers anywhere in the world. Like its relative, it relies on ambush hunting near water sources and streambeds, where amphibians and small mammals come to drink.
| Snake | Venom Type | Typical Range |
|---|---|---|
| Black mamba | Neurotoxic | Sub-Saharan savanna and woodland |
| Puff adder | Cytotoxic / hemotoxic | Continent-wide, excluding deep rainforest |
| Mozambique spitting cobra | Cytotoxic | Southeastern Africa |
| Cape cobra | Neurotoxic | Western southern Africa |
| Egyptian cobra | Neurotoxic | North and East Africa |
| Gaboon viper | Cytotoxic / hemotoxic | West and Central African forest |
11. African Bush Viper
The African bush viper (Atheris squamigera) is an arboreal species found in the rainforests of the Congo Basin, Uganda, and Kenya. Its rough, heavily keeled scales give it a bristly, almost dragon-like texture, and its color can range from olive green to deep red or near-black depending on population.
This viper spends most of its life coiled in low branches and shrubs, striking downward at rodents and frogs that pass beneath it. Its venom is cytotoxic and poorly studied compared to larger African vipers, which makes any bite from this species particularly difficult for hospitals to treat.
12. West African Bush Viper
The West African bush viper (Atheris chlorechis) occupies forest habitat further west than its Congo Basin relative, ranging through Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and neighboring countries. It shares the same rough-scaled, arboreal lifestyle but tends toward a more uniform green coloration that blends into surrounding foliage.
Like other bush vipers, this species is slow-moving and depends entirely on ambush tactics rather than pursuit. It is popular in the exotic pet trade despite being venomous, which has raised concern among herpetologists about unsustainable wild collection.
13. West African Carpet Viper
The West African carpet viper (Echis ocellatus), also called the saw-scaled viper, is one of the most medically significant snakes in the Sahel and savanna belts of West Africa. It earns the “saw-scaled” nickname from the serrated keels on its flanks, which it rubs together to produce a distinctive rasping warning sound.
Small size can be deceiving here: this species is responsible for a disproportionate share of serious snakebite cases in Nigeria, Niger, and surrounding countries, largely because of how common it is in farmland and village edges. American readers familiar with pit viper identification, such as those using an Arizona snake identification guide for rattlesnakes, will recognize the same basic principle: small, common, and well-camouflaged vipers often cause more bites than the rare giants.
14. Southern African Python
The Southern African python (Python natalensis) was long treated as a subspecies of the African rock python before researchers split it into its own species. SafariBookings reports that scientists recognize two subspecies of the African rock python, with the slightly smaller Python sebae natalensis found in southern Tanzania and further southward, believed by some to be a completely separate species.
This python occupies savanna and bushveld habitats from Kenya and Zambia down to the Cape, often denning in termite mounds, rock crevices, or abandoned burrows. Like its northern relative, it is a powerful constrictor capable of taking prey as large as small antelope, though attacks on people remain extremely rare.
15. Southern Adder
The southern adder (Bitis armata) is a small, little-known viper restricted to the coastal fynbos of South Africa’s Western Cape. Its limited range and specific habitat requirements have earned it conservation concern, since coastal development continues to shrink the sandy, shrub-covered terrain it depends on.
Unlike the wide-ranging puff adder, this species rarely grows past 40 centimeters and feeds mainly on small lizards and amphibians. Its venom is considered mild compared to larger Bitis species, though any bite still warrants medical attention.
16. Berg Adder
The Berg adder (Bitis atropos) lives at higher elevations than most of its relatives, favoring mountain slopes and rocky grassland across South Africa, Lesotho, and parts of Zimbabwe. Its name reflects this preference, since “berg” means mountain in Afrikaans.
Bites from this species produce an unusual symptom profile that sets it apart from other adders: some victims report temporary loss of smell or taste alongside more typical local swelling and pain. Researchers believe this reflects a venom composition distinct from the cytotoxin-heavy profile seen in puff adders and Gaboon vipers.
17. Horned Adder
The horned adder (Bitis caudalis) takes its name from a single enlarged scale that projects above each eye like a small horn. It is a desert specialist, found across the dry western half of southern Africa, including the Namib and Kalahari, where it buries itself in loose sand with only its eyes exposed.
This sit-and-wait hunter relies almost entirely on ambush, using its sandy coloration to vanish into dune and scrubland habitat. Its venom is primarily cytotoxic, and while bites are rarely fatal with treatment, the species remains a common cause of livestock and pet bites in arid farming regions.
18. Night Adder
Night adders (genus Causus) stand apart from most African vipers in one key way: they lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young, a trait shared with only a handful of other viperid species worldwide. Several species in the genus are scattered across sub-Saharan Africa, favoring wetland edges and moist grassland where amphibians are plentiful.
Their venom is comparatively mild, and night adders are generally considered low-risk to healthy adults, though bites can still cause significant local swelling. They are mostly nocturnal, as their name suggests, emerging after dark to hunt frogs and toads along pond margins.
19. Rhombic Night Adder
The rhombic night adder (Causus rhombeatus) is the most widespread member of its genus, found from South Africa up through East Africa and into parts of West Africa. It gets its name from the dark, diamond-shaped blotches running down its back, which help distinguish it from similarly sized colubrids.
This species is a frog and toad specialist, often found near dams, streams, and garden ponds in suburban areas. Despite its mild venom, the rhombic night adder puffs up and hisses dramatically when cornered, a bluff display that often convinces people it is far more dangerous than it actually is.
20. Stiletto Snake
Stiletto snakes (genus Atractaspis) are burrowing specialists found across much of sub-Saharan Africa, and they are infamous among herpetologists for a fang mechanism unlike any other group of snakes. Rather than opening their mouths wide to bite, they can jab sideways with a single lower fang while keeping their mouth mostly closed, striking without the usual warning posture.
This unusual anatomy means the standard advice of holding a snake safely behind the head simply does not work with this genus, since the fang can still reach a handler’s fingers. Most species in the group spend their lives underground, surfacing mainly after rain or during nighttime foraging for other burrowing animals.
Common Mistake: Assuming any small, dark, shiny snake found underground is harmless. Stiletto snakes resemble several nonvenomous burrowing species closely enough that misidentification is common, and their sideways strike defeats typical handling techniques.
21. Bibron’s Stiletto Snake
Bibron’s stiletto snake (Atractaspis bibronii) is the most widely distributed member of the genus in southern and eastern Africa, often turned up by gardeners digging in loose soil. It has a smooth, cylindrical body built for pushing through loose earth, with small eyes and a blunt head that give it a mole-like appearance.
Its venom is primarily cytotoxic and causes significant local pain and swelling rather than the systemic effects seen in elapid bites. Because it shares burrow systems and garden soil with other underground reptiles covered in guides to geckos in South Africa, homeowners in the region sometimes encounter several burrowing species in the same flowerbed.
22. Spotted Bush Snake
The spotted bush snake (Philothamnus semivariegatus) is a slender, bright green colubrid found across much of sub-Saharan Africa, instantly recognizable by the irregular black speckling scattered down its back. It is completely harmless to people and spends most of its time climbing through shrubs, hedges, and tree branches.
This species feeds primarily on geckos, skinks, and tree frogs, making it a frequent visitor to gardens where lizard prey is abundant, including areas also home to the many lizards found in South Africa. Its speed and climbing ability let it escape predators quickly, often disappearing into foliage the moment it is disturbed.
23. Cape House Snake
The Cape house snake (Boaedon capensis) is one of the most commonly encountered nonvenomous snakes around homes and gardens in South Africa. It is a capable rat and mouse hunter, which makes it a welcome presence for anyone trying to keep rodent populations down without chemical pest control.
Typically reddish-brown with pale stripes running along the head, this snake is nocturnal and often found sheltering under rubble, woodpiles, or compost heaps during the day. It constricts its prey like a small python, though its docile temperament means most people never notice it unless they move the debris it is hiding under.
24. Brown House Snake
The brown house snake (Boaedon fuliginosus) extends the house snake range much further north than its Cape relative, occurring across a broad swath of sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to Kenya. It fills a similar ecological role everywhere it occurs, hunting rodents around human settlements, farms, and storage buildings.
Color varies from light tan to dark chocolate brown, and juveniles often show more distinct striping than adults. Like other house snakes, it is entirely harmless and frequently kept in captivity by reptile enthusiasts because of its calm temperament and easy care requirements.
25. Mole Snake
The mole snake (Pseudaspis cana) is one of the larger nonvenomous snakes in southern Africa, capable of reaching lengths that rival small pythons despite belonging to a completely different family. It is a powerful burrower that spends much of its life underground, feeding heavily on moles, mice, and other small mammals it pursues through their own tunnel systems.
Color ranges widely across the species, and some populations include dark, almost melanistic individuals that are sometimes mistaken for more dangerous species, a confusion also seen among the black snakes of South Africa more broadly. Despite its harmless nature, a cornered mole snake can put up an aggressive bluffing display, hissing and striking repeatedly even though it has no venom to back up the threat.
26. Twig Snake
The twig snake (Thelotornis capensis), also called the African vine snake, is a master of disguise built to look exactly like the branch it rests on. Its narrow body, pointed snout, and mottled gray-brown coloring let it remain motionless in shrubs and trees for hours, virtually invisible to both predators and prey.
Unlike the harmless spotted bush snake, the twig snake is venomous, delivering a slow-acting hemotoxic bite through rear fangs that require prolonged contact to inject effectively. Because symptoms can take hours to appear, bites from this species have historically been underestimated, which makes correct identification especially important in areas where it overlaps with harmless lookalikes.
27. Angolan Adder
The Angolan adder (Bitis heraldica) is one of the least-studied vipers on this list, known mainly from highland grassland and rocky terrain in Angola. Its restricted range and the historically limited fieldwork access in the region mean that much of its basic biology, including population size and precise venom composition, remains poorly documented.
What is known places it firmly within the typical Bitis pattern: a thick-bodied, slow-moving ambush predator relying on camouflage rather than speed. Conservation status is difficult to assess given how little survey work has been done across its known range.
28. Senegalese Cobra
The Senegalese cobra (Naja senegalensis) was formally split from the wider Egyptian cobra complex and is now recognized as its own species occupying savanna habitat across West Africa. It shares the elongated hood and alert defensive posture typical of the genus, rearing up and flaring its hood when threatened rather than fleeing immediately.
Like its relatives, it hunts rodents, amphibians, and other snakes across open grassland and farmland edges. Its neurotoxic venom places it among the medically significant cobras of the region, and any encounter should be treated with the same caution given to other large African elapids.
29. Slender Burrowing Asp
The slender burrowing asp (Atractaspis aterrima) is a member of the same sideways-striking stiletto snake family found further west and south, occupying forest and savanna habitats across West and Central Africa. True to its name, it has an unusually narrow, elongated body compared to its stockier relatives.
Like other Atractaspis species, it spends most of its life underground and surfaces mainly to hunt or during rainfall events that flood burrow systems. Its cytotoxic venom causes localized pain and swelling, and the same sideways fang mechanism that defines the genus makes careless handling risky even for experienced herpetologists.
30. Angolan Garter Snake
The Angolan garter snake (Elapsoidea semiannulata) belongs to a genus of African elapids that look nothing like the true garter snakes familiar to North American readers, despite the shared common name. These are mildly venomous, secretive burrowers marked with alternating light and dark bands, found across Angola and neighboring parts of Central Africa.
Anyone researching the broader types of garter snakes across different continents will find this is a case of convergent naming rather than convergent biology, since African garter snakes are elapids related to cobras and mambas, not colubrids like their American namesakes. They feed primarily on other reptiles and spend most daylight hours hidden under logs or loose soil.
31. Mozambique Shovel-Snout
The Mozambique shovel-snout (Prosymna janii) belongs to a genus of small, harmless burrowing snakes named for the flattened, shovel-like snout they use to push through loose sand and soil. It is found across parts of Mozambique and neighboring regions of southeastern Africa.
These snakes are reptile egg specialists, raiding the nests of lizards and smaller snakes for a meal rather than hunting live prey. Their small size and secretive, underground habits mean they are rarely seen even in areas where they are relatively common.
32. East African Shovel-Snout
The East African shovel-snout (Prosymna stuhlmanni) fills the same ecological niche as its Mozambican relative but ranges further north and east, through Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. It shares the same blunt, reinforced snout adapted for digging through compacted soil and leaf litter.
Like other members of the genus, it is completely harmless to people and poses no threat even if handled. Its diet of reptile eggs makes it an important, if little-noticed, predator within the small-reptile food web of East African grassland and woodland habitats.
33. Southern Brown Egg-Eater
The southern brown egg-eater (Dasypeltis inornata) belongs to a remarkable genus of snakes that have evolved to eat almost nothing but bird eggs. Found across South Africa, it has nearly toothless jaws and specialized bony projections in its throat that crack an egg’s shell from the inside after swallowing it whole.
Despite being completely nonvenomous, this species puts on an impressive defensive display, rubbing its scales together to produce a rasping hiss that mimics the warning sound of a saw-scaled viper. This bluff is often enough to deter predators that would otherwise make an easy meal of it.
34. East African Egg-Eater
The East African egg-eater (Dasypeltis medici) shares the same specialized egg-cracking anatomy as its southern relative but ranges through Kenya, Tanzania, and surrounding countries. Its body pattern can vary considerably between individuals, which herpetologists believe helps it mimic several different venomous species depending on local predator pressure.
This kind of defensive mimicry has a rough parallel in North American snakes, where harmless species mirror the banding of venomous relatives, as seen among the various types of milk snakes that echo coral snake patterns. In both cases, a completely harmless animal borrows the reputation of a dangerous one simply by looking the part.
Key Insight: Mimicry shows up repeatedly across this list, from egg-eaters copying viper hisses to color patterns that make harmless house snakes resemble their venomous neighbors. Confident identification usually depends on more than color alone, including head shape, behavior, and habitat.
From the record-sized African rock python down to the egg-eating specialists that rarely grow past arm’s length, these types of snakes in Africa show how much diversity has packed itself into one continent’s grasslands, forests, and deserts. A relatively small handful of species, mostly mambas, cobras, and the larger vipers, account for nearly all serious snakebite risk, while the majority on this list are harmless rodent and reptile hunters that quietly keep ecosystems in balance. Travelers accustomed to North American species, whether that means rattlesnakes in the Southwest or the garter snakes and milk snakes found closer to home, will recognize familiar survival strategies here even as the specific families differ sharply from the snakes found in places like Mexico or the American Southwest.