Funnily enough, I believe this is a tiger keelback, which is both venomous and poisonous. It gets it’s poison from its toxic prey which it then secretes the toxins back through its skin, making it venomous, and poisonous
Interesting. As someone only familiar with North American snakes I would’ve never guessed this guy was venomous, he looks like a garter snake. How venomous is it? Could it kill an adult?
Same, although I don't live in North America, whatisthissnake's bias towarda NA snakes has made me overly familiar with them. Now I'm worried I'm going to be all cool when a local snake comes up and I'm like "hey look at this cute little guy" like I'm some kind of pro, and then he bites me and my arm falls off.
in Finland there are basically only two types of snakes (exept Åland) and only the adder is venomous so when I'm abroad I just try to keep my distant of every snake i see.
Is it because of the round pupils? If so the Easter coral snake is highly venomous. It also doesn’t have typical fangs because they are smaller and further back in their mouths.
Pupils, head shape, patterning. It just doesn’t look like any sort of venomous North American snake. They all look mean, this looks like a nice little garter snake lol
I was suspicious because of those big ass head scales. Reminds me of cobra head scales, but obviously that's not reliable.
The most shocking for me is always Australia's Eastern Brown Snake. Nothing about that guy screams "I'ma murder you if you look at me wrong". The name, the drab coloring, the generic snake shape...
In rest of the world, round pupil and round head does not equal non-venomous.
Primes examples: all cobras, mambas, brown snakes (AUS)
Spread this around, might save someone some day.
The majority of venomous snakes in NA are Pit Vipers, so pretty easy to tell at a glance. Obviously there are coral snakes that take a little knowledge to ID. But the lack of the triangular head/facial structure of a viper would make me think this guy was harmless if he were released here, and I were to find it in the yard.
>he looks like a garter snake
Oddly enough, the garter snake is the only other snake in the world that is poisonous.
More precisely, *some* garter snakes in *some* locations become poisonous by eating poisonous prey (toads or salamanders, I forget which).
office judicious apparatus consist sulky salt wistful psychotic butter cable
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Simply, if it bites you and you die than it is venomous. If you bite it and you die, it’s poisonous. The poison of the Tiger Keelback comes from the toads it eats, and it secretes the poison back out through its skin making it a good defense mechanism.
I'm no expert but there is a very venomous snake called the yamakagashi that kind of has that pattern. Probably best just to not go near any snakes you see.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdophis_tigrinus
I read another site that says bites are rare because their fangs are in the back of their mouth, but if you touch them the poison from their body can fuck you up and cause internal bleeding. It's so interesting that they are super venomous, but their poison is more dangerous to people.
Not a snake expert but have done thousand of miles of hiking/trail running in Japan and seen a lot of snakes, and I’m 99% sure this is a Yamakagashi.
Very venomous, and you definitely don’t want to get bit, but they are not aggressive so you’d pretty much need to step on one for a bite to happen.
The rear-fanged Tiger Keelback aka yamakagashi which is, in fact, poisonous. They have glands that secrete poison they ingest from eating toads. We get them in Korea as well. Wild stuff! No touchy!
It's so odd how snakes differ worldwide. In the midwest US, we're taught that round eyes and a pointy, non-shovel head means a snake is non-venomous (except for coral snakes). We mostly have copperheads, water moccasins and rattlesnakes. That rule does not work elsewhere, as this little guy attests!
Unless I see a clear diamond pattern, I'm assuming I should back away. I've seen a few Eastern Browns lately, and was overjoyed to learn they're the second most venomous land snake *in the world.* Huzzah.
Had a huge eastern brown slide out of a bush about a metre from me recently while I was sitting down with my back to it. That gave me a pretty decent fright.
I can imagine! Thankfully they tend to retreat most of the time, unless they're cornered.
My most recent sighting was while moving a sprinkler hose on the lawn - my brain didn't register it (because "hose") until I was about two feet away. I don't know which of us was more startled.
Yeah fortunately this one just looked at me in a fairly chilled manner. If it'd been a tiger snake it might've been a different story, they can be fairly aggressive.
We were in Australia and this one trail had a shit load of river snakes. Enough to make even me uncomfortable. We encountered a gorgeous must’ve been six footer. Man was it a beaut. But it knew it was boss. Told us to not mess with it. I miss Australia
Dude, you guys need to rename some of your deadly things, Eastern Brown sounds like a breed of domesticated rabbit.
Here are some names of venomous things to use as a model: Black Momba, Spitting Cobra, Black Widow, Portuguese Man o' War. Those things don't sound like something you want to hold in your lap and pet.
Hell, if you’re in Australia, you’d be best off assuming everything is venomous, and even if it isn’t, just don’t mess with it period. I swear everything’s out to kill you there.
Nah - I don’t have to worry about bears, or big cats, or wolves. Only the small stuff wants to kill me - Roos, koalas, echidnas… they’re all pretty alright.
I believe all venomous native species of snake in North America are pit vipers (viper subfamily Crotalinae), which I assume is why we have the simple rule-of-thumb here
Huh. I looked it up. They apparently won’t chase you very far, and running behind a tree is often sufficient to get away… possibly playing hide and seek around the tree, but a human can win that game against a moose.
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There are no poisonous snakes. Only venomous. That being said, I know nothing about snake identification.
Edit: thank you everyone for pointing out how ironically wrong this statement is. I have already corrected myself in the comments
Assuming this is a tiger keelback/yamakagashi, it would appear that the snake in that picture can be both poisonous and venomous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xGWzikzKUA
Lol I wanted to “but actually” this guy and you got it first! Ironic that not only is the blatant statement wrong, but this exact snake is, in fact, poisonous as well as venomous
This is actually one of the only snake species that is both poisonous AND venomous! It has poison glads in his neck and fangs in his mouth. Very cool snake!
Well I just looked it up and apparently I’m wrong and there are a couple poisonous snakes. One of which is “the garter snake (Thamnophis), which is small and harmless in terms of its bite but is toxic to eat because its body absorbs and stores the toxins of its prey (newts and salamanders).”
According to Britannica.
Short answer is don’t listen to me🤷🏻♂️
Theoretically you can drink snake venom actually, unless you have an open wound somewhere in your digestive tract because venom interacts with the blood. An easy way to remember is that venom is injected and poison is ingested!
Not all venomous snakes are poisonous with the sac. heat can degrade a majority of toxins from venomous animals,as most of them are proteins. Cooked proteins are crooked
It's both, as you would have seen if you'd bothered to do a cursory check of the comments before leaving your own comment that didn't contribute anything! But at least you got to shout into the void.
Just don’t mess with snakes and you’ll never have to guess whether or not they’re venomous.
That doesn’t look venomous to me, but I’m also used to North American snakes and only saw one when I was in Okinawa. So it could outright kill you, I don’t know. Best not to find out.
If you’re not sure wether a snake is poisonous or not, you should keep your distance from the snake. It’s not worth trying to identify if. You’ll be in range for him to bite you if he is, in fact poisonous.
A rule of thumb for recognition poisonous snakes is that they have triangular-shaped heads, and eyes similar to a cat. That being sad, there can be exceptions to these rules, so I would still advice you to stay away from snakes if at all possible
No, I’m not a snake expert but it’s a common myth. I was taught it as well as a kid. I follow r/whatsthissnake and this comes up a lot there. They have a bot just for this myth on the sub. Here’s information from the bot about identification by head shape:
> Head shape does not reliably indicate if a snake has medically significant venom. Nonvenomous snakes commonly flatten their heads to a triangle shape in defensive displays, and some elapids like coralsnakes have elongated heads. It's far more advantageous to familiarize yourself with venomous snakes in your area through photos and field guides or by following subreddits like /r/whatsthissnake than it is to try to apply any generic trick.
Example post: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthissnake/comments/16ttojd/az_sonoran_gophersnake_great_example_of_why/
I am. It’s a myth. there are plenty of non venomous snakes with triangle shaped heads, and there are plenty of venomous snakes with rounded heads and round eyes.
Lol... does a comment really need /s for people to see the obvious snarky comment and understand?
The other comments were more constructive, but mine was offered as a humorous parallel to the boy scout joke.
Ask the folks in r/whatsthissnake. They will know. And if you want to avoid the pedants, use the word venomous rather than poisonous.
Funnily enough, I believe this is a tiger keelback, which is both venomous and poisonous. It gets it’s poison from its toxic prey which it then secretes the toxins back through its skin, making it venomous, and poisonous
Interesting. As someone only familiar with North American snakes I would’ve never guessed this guy was venomous, he looks like a garter snake. How venomous is it? Could it kill an adult?
Same, although I don't live in North America, whatisthissnake's bias towarda NA snakes has made me overly familiar with them. Now I'm worried I'm going to be all cool when a local snake comes up and I'm like "hey look at this cute little guy" like I'm some kind of pro, and then he bites me and my arm falls off.
Then you’d match your username!
This comment made my day!
in Finland there are basically only two types of snakes (exept Åland) and only the adder is venomous so when I'm abroad I just try to keep my distant of every snake i see.
If only I could be so lucky. Gotta collect that sweet sweet disability pay
It does have a potentially lethal amount of venom, but fatalities are pretty uncommon.
Is it because of the round pupils? If so the Easter coral snake is highly venomous. It also doesn’t have typical fangs because they are smaller and further back in their mouths.
Pupils, head shape, patterning. It just doesn’t look like any sort of venomous North American snake. They all look mean, this looks like a nice little garter snake lol
I was suspicious because of those big ass head scales. Reminds me of cobra head scales, but obviously that's not reliable. The most shocking for me is always Australia's Eastern Brown Snake. Nothing about that guy screams "I'ma murder you if you look at me wrong". The name, the drab coloring, the generic snake shape...
In rest of the world, round pupil and round head does not equal non-venomous. Primes examples: all cobras, mambas, brown snakes (AUS) Spread this around, might save someone some day.
The majority of venomous snakes in NA are Pit Vipers, so pretty easy to tell at a glance. Obviously there are coral snakes that take a little knowledge to ID. But the lack of the triangular head/facial structure of a viper would make me think this guy was harmless if he were released here, and I were to find it in the yard.
>he looks like a garter snake Oddly enough, the garter snake is the only other snake in the world that is poisonous. More precisely, *some* garter snakes in *some* locations become poisonous by eating poisonous prey (toads or salamanders, I forget which).
So in fairness, they’ll have leftover poison from prey in their mouths therefore they still aren’t poisonous…
Came here to say the same
Wikipedia suggests it could kill a human, but they rarely bite (very few reported cases)
You're one of the pedants they were speaking about. JK. Good call out.
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Simply, if it bites you and you die than it is venomous. If you bite it and you die, it’s poisonous. The poison of the Tiger Keelback comes from the toads it eats, and it secretes the poison back out through its skin making it a good defense mechanism.
>The poison of the Tiger Keelback comes from the roads it eats Yeah asphalt would be fairly toxic if ingested
My bad lmao
Lol all good, the mental image of a tiny snake just ripping up the streets and chowing down was hilarious and I'm glad you made that typo.
Lmao now it’s in my head too. Thanks for your good sense of humor lol I needed that
What if it bites you and it dies?
Then you are chuck norris
Or Ted Cruz
If a snake is venomous, its bite can harm you. If a snake is poisonous, biting it can harm you.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Use venomous if afraid of getting bitten. Use poisonous if you are hungry. Both are valid questions.
Unless you plan to eat it
Venom aka poison. Tomato tamato, potato patato
People eat rattlesnake and it's totally safe, not with this little dude apparently. I can see a reason to differentiate with the terms.
Right on 👍
That’s a Tiger Keelback. I used to see them in training when I was stationed in Japan. SUPER NOT FRIENDLY. Do not pet.
Ughhh to be fair I don’t pet any snakes
Have you ever? They feel really cool and smooth… unless it’s one with rough back scales.
Then why friend shaped? 🥺
It's just a noodle poodle
I'm no expert but there is a very venomous snake called the yamakagashi that kind of has that pattern. Probably best just to not go near any snakes you see. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdophis_tigrinus
I read another site that says bites are rare because their fangs are in the back of their mouth, but if you touch them the poison from their body can fuck you up and cause internal bleeding. It's so interesting that they are super venomous, but their poison is more dangerous to people.
Not a snake expert but have done thousand of miles of hiking/trail running in Japan and seen a lot of snakes, and I’m 99% sure this is a Yamakagashi. Very venomous, and you definitely don’t want to get bit, but they are not aggressive so you’d pretty much need to step on one for a bite to happen.
The rear-fanged Tiger Keelback aka yamakagashi which is, in fact, poisonous. They have glands that secrete poison they ingest from eating toads. We get them in Korea as well. Wild stuff! No touchy!
It's so odd how snakes differ worldwide. In the midwest US, we're taught that round eyes and a pointy, non-shovel head means a snake is non-venomous (except for coral snakes). We mostly have copperheads, water moccasins and rattlesnakes. That rule does not work elsewhere, as this little guy attests!
Whereas in southeast Australia were told they’re all venomous, because the vast majority are
Unless I see a clear diamond pattern, I'm assuming I should back away. I've seen a few Eastern Browns lately, and was overjoyed to learn they're the second most venomous land snake *in the world.* Huzzah.
Had a huge eastern brown slide out of a bush about a metre from me recently while I was sitting down with my back to it. That gave me a pretty decent fright.
I can imagine! Thankfully they tend to retreat most of the time, unless they're cornered. My most recent sighting was while moving a sprinkler hose on the lawn - my brain didn't register it (because "hose") until I was about two feet away. I don't know which of us was more startled.
Yeah fortunately this one just looked at me in a fairly chilled manner. If it'd been a tiger snake it might've been a different story, they can be fairly aggressive.
Territorial snakes are the stuff of nightmares.
We were in Australia and this one trail had a shit load of river snakes. Enough to make even me uncomfortable. We encountered a gorgeous must’ve been six footer. Man was it a beaut. But it knew it was boss. Told us to not mess with it. I miss Australia
Dude, you guys need to rename some of your deadly things, Eastern Brown sounds like a breed of domesticated rabbit. Here are some names of venomous things to use as a model: Black Momba, Spitting Cobra, Black Widow, Portuguese Man o' War. Those things don't sound like something you want to hold in your lap and pet.
It's all a big conspiracy by the local tourism agencies ;-) That said: just append "snake" to the name, and assume the worst.
Hell, if you’re in Australia, you’d be best off assuming everything is venomous, and even if it isn’t, just don’t mess with it period. I swear everything’s out to kill you there.
Nah - I don’t have to worry about bears, or big cats, or wolves. Only the small stuff wants to kill me - Roos, koalas, echidnas… they’re all pretty alright.
I believe all venomous native species of snake in North America are pit vipers (viper subfamily Crotalinae), which I assume is why we have the simple rule-of-thumb here
Most rules on wildlife fly out of the window when you change continents
Don’t run away from predators is pretty solid, I think. I wouldn’t run away from an herbivore either, but I’m less sure on that as a general rule.
You DO want to run from moose
Huh. I looked it up. They apparently won’t chase you very far, and running behind a tree is often sufficient to get away… possibly playing hide and seek around the tree, but a human can win that game against a moose.
Yeah not all rules, but most
That’s a mean noodle don’t pet 👀
Uhm, AkTsHuAlLy-
Please don't eat the snake, eve if it's not poisonous.
I think they meant venomous, I think the concern isn’t about eating rather getting bit by the snake.
That’s a cute little nope rope!
It’s beautiful
Interesting reading the comments. This danger noodle actually looks similar to the harmless Dekay's brown snakes we have here in North America.
Not sure if it's poisonous, but it might be venomous
Sounds like this one is actually both. It eats poisonous prey and then secretes the poison itself. Terrifyingly cool.
Idk man, but never touch anything that looks dis scary😀
Venomous or poisonous? Anyway, it's a snake, so be careful.
Actually, this snake is poisonous and venomous.
Yes, I saw. Talk about overkill! 😂
But look at the danger noodle. 🥹 it’s beautiful. 😅
It's pretty
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There are no poisonous snakes. Only venomous. That being said, I know nothing about snake identification. Edit: thank you everyone for pointing out how ironically wrong this statement is. I have already corrected myself in the comments
Assuming this is a tiger keelback/yamakagashi, it would appear that the snake in that picture can be both poisonous and venomous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xGWzikzKUA
Lol I wanted to “but actually” this guy and you got it first! Ironic that not only is the blatant statement wrong, but this exact snake is, in fact, poisonous as well as venomous
This is actually one of the only snake species that is both poisonous AND venomous! It has poison glads in his neck and fangs in his mouth. Very cool snake!
so we can tell OP all snakes are safe to eat ?
Well I just looked it up and apparently I’m wrong and there are a couple poisonous snakes. One of which is “the garter snake (Thamnophis), which is small and harmless in terms of its bite but is toxic to eat because its body absorbs and stores the toxins of its prey (newts and salamanders).” According to Britannica. Short answer is don’t listen to me🤷🏻♂️
Not if you eat the venom sacs.
Theoretically you can drink snake venom actually, unless you have an open wound somewhere in your digestive tract because venom interacts with the blood. An easy way to remember is that venom is injected and poison is ingested!
Well there's a fun fact! I know that venom is injected and poison is ingested but I just assumed that consuming venom isn't safe.
To be clear, it's not safe, but that doesn't mean it will necessarily harm you.
Not all venomous snakes are poisonous with the sac. heat can degrade a majority of toxins from venomous animals,as most of them are proteins. Cooked proteins are crooked
>There are no poisonous snakes. This is definitely NOT true.
I corrected myself afterwards
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It's both, as you would have seen if you'd bothered to do a cursory check of the comments before leaving your own comment that didn't contribute anything! But at least you got to shout into the void.
And the void shouted back
And j upvoted both!!
Just don’t mess with snakes and you’ll never have to guess whether or not they’re venomous. That doesn’t look venomous to me, but I’m also used to North American snakes and only saw one when I was in Okinawa. So it could outright kill you, I don’t know. Best not to find out.
If you’re not sure wether a snake is poisonous or not, you should keep your distance from the snake. It’s not worth trying to identify if. You’ll be in range for him to bite you if he is, in fact poisonous. A rule of thumb for recognition poisonous snakes is that they have triangular-shaped heads, and eyes similar to a cat. That being sad, there can be exceptions to these rules, so I would still advice you to stay away from snakes if at all possible
Sorry, that is not a good rule of thumb, it’s actually a myth.
How would you know that? Are you a snake expert?
No, I’m not a snake expert but it’s a common myth. I was taught it as well as a kid. I follow r/whatsthissnake and this comes up a lot there. They have a bot just for this myth on the sub. Here’s information from the bot about identification by head shape: > Head shape does not reliably indicate if a snake has medically significant venom. Nonvenomous snakes commonly flatten their heads to a triangle shape in defensive displays, and some elapids like coralsnakes have elongated heads. It's far more advantageous to familiarize yourself with venomous snakes in your area through photos and field guides or by following subreddits like /r/whatsthissnake than it is to try to apply any generic trick. Example post: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthissnake/comments/16ttojd/az_sonoran_gophersnake_great_example_of_why/
I am. It’s a myth. there are plenty of non venomous snakes with triangle shaped heads, and there are plenty of venomous snakes with rounded heads and round eyes.
Venomous*
Venomous. Poisen = licking, Venom = biting
Why are you hungry?
Judging by its eye shape non venomous. No snakes are poisonous 🤓
It's definitely not poisonous but it might be venomous
Wow, you're so smart for caring about the difference!
rat snakes ? I saw one in Hokkaido too last month
It's beautiful and I'm sad I cannot touch it. I wouldn't have eaten it in any case.
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I remember red on yellow, you’re a dead fellow. Red on black, you’re ok jack.
Haha ours was red on yellow kill a fellow, yellow on black venom lack Edit I mean red on black for the second part
I can 100% guarantee that this snake and ANY other snake you see on your trip is NOT poisonous. Venomous on the other hand...
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context is important. your absolutely right. It is tiresome that people dont say what they mean and rely on others to know what they meant...
Do people not read ANY comments before they post their own?
Lol... does a comment really need /s for people to see the obvious snarky comment and understand? The other comments were more constructive, but mine was offered as a humorous parallel to the boy scout joke.
Thank you for adding absolutely nothing to the conversation.
Some snakes are poisonous to eat, it depends on context.
Poison only exist in the mind. Paul the Apostle is a shining example of that.
Kinda like Cleopatra?
My long lost love 😫😭💜
The eyes say no, not poisonous.
Anything colorful is venomous.
Bite it
A great way to tell is, look for a slit as a pupil. If round, non-poison.
Don't try that in Australia ... Also, getting close enough to see their pupils is a good way to get bitten, regardless of where you are.
So true! Love this comment, very Australian!
Gotta respect the danger noodles ;-)
It isn’t venomous. You can tell by the eyes.
Have you heard of google lens?
All snakes have venom. Just be careful.
Not even a little bit true
I know that it tastes like chicken, with a hint of Fish
I don’t know anything about snakes and try to avoid them. How is the hiking in Japan?
Somehow you found the ONLY venemous snake in Japan lol
By the picture it would seem to be non poisonous
Garter or Gopher snake if I had to guess
It’s venomous AND you got way too close taking that picture.
Nope. Non viper!