Fear of snakes is a common emotion found in most of us. We believe that even a small snake can be harmful to us. But not all species of snakes are venomous. A number of snake species also found as exotic pets in many parts of the world. The followings are 10 non-venomous snakes in the world.
10 Northern Water Snake
Northern water snakes are found in the Northeastern United States. It is a non-venomous species snake that inhabits in rivers, ponds, marshes, lakes and bogs. They appear in brownish or grayish colors. As they have some similarities with venomous snakes like water moccasins or rattle snake people sometimes kill them on sight. Northern water snakes are very aggressive and will definitely bite you on disturbance. But they are harmless because they have no venom. They only possess the defensive bite to escape from you.
Northern water snakes also possess different types of defense mechanism other than biting on confrontation with the predators. They release foul smell and regurgitate their meal to defend the predators. During the Spring and Fall they become very social and found in groups to basking in the Sunlight. Northern water snakes mainly feed on insects, fish, mice and turtles.
9 Four-lined Snake
Four-lined snakes are the largest non-venomous species of rat snakes in Europe. They are named after four dark stripes on their yellowish brown body. The adult snake reaches up to a length of 1.8 meters. Four-lined snakes present in Italy, Slovenia and Greece. They feed on mice, lizards and rats.
8 Eastern Garter Snake
The Eastern garter snakes are endemic to North America, found in grassy habitats. Eastern garter snakes are harmless to humans. They strike on disturbance and it makes allergic reaction to humans. They also release a foul smell from its gland to escape from the predators.
The adult Eastern garter snakes have a length up to 26 inches. They appear in dark green to black color with three yellow stripes. The Eastern garter snakes often confuse with queen snakes because they have two yellowish stripes on its back.
7 Emerald Tree Boa
Emerald tree boas are green tree python look alike non-venomous snakes that found in the rain forests of South America. They appear in light green color with white irregular zigzag stripes. They are also known as green tree boas and emerald boa.
Emerald tree boas have a length between 1.5 and 2 meters. They also have large front teeth than any other non-venomous snakes in the world. Emerald boas are tree-dwelling snakes. The powerful body and prehensile tail help them to move from branches to branches. The diet of emerald boa consists of amphibians, small mammals, birds and small reptiles.
6 Rough Green Snake
Rough green snake or grass green snake is a non-venomous species found in the Southeastern United States. They inhabit in open forests and woodlands. As the name indicate grass green snakes have bright green upper part and yellowish belly. This coloration is a great camouflage in green vegetation. Rough green snakes escape into dense green vegetation on the approach of predators and it become very difficult to spot them.
Rough green snakes have very thin long body, reach up to a average length of 45 inches. They spend most of time on trees and low bushes in searching for food. Grass green snakes mainly eat cricketers, grasshoppers, small frogs and spiders.
5 Bull Snake
Bull snake is a large non-venomous species found in Southwester Canada, Western Mexico and Southern United States. They also called as ‘gopher snakes’ in U.S. Bull snakes readily strike when they get disturbed. But they are not harmful because they have no venom. They also vibrate their tail and hiss loudly on the approach of predators.
Bull snakes have a length between 40-72 inches. They have creamy or yellowish brown body with dark blotches. Bull snakes inhabit in pine barren and open country. They are very valuable snake species for farmers because they eat plenty of crop destroying rodents.
4 Black Rat Snake
The black rat snake is one of common snakes found in North America. They are non-venomous and very large in size, has an average length between 4-6 feet. They found in rocky and wooded hillsides, open fields and mountain ledges. When startled black snakes becomes very aggressive. They vibrate their tail in dead leaves to mimic like venomous rattle snake. They also possess a threaten posture by wrinkle themselves into a series of twists.
Like bull snakes black rat snakes are also economically beneficial snake spices because they feed on crop damaging rodents. In that way farmers can also reduce the usage of chemical poisons that affect the environment. The diet list of black rat snake also includes rabbits, small birds and lizards.
3 Milk Snake
Milk snakes are one of most colorful snakes in the world. They have dark blotches and lighter stripes on the body. The blotches of their body are in black and the light stripes vary from red, orange yellow or white. Milk snakes are non venomous snakes. The color pattern of milk snakes have great resemblance with venomous coral snakes. It is difficult to tell the difference between a coral snake and milk snake.
The venomous coral snakes have red, yellow, black yellow color pattern and a black head. The harmless milk snakes have black, red, black , yellow pattern and and a red head. Milk snakes inhabit in rocky slopes and forested regions of U.S and Central America. They mainly eat slugs, earthworms, crickets and insects.
2 Python
Pythons are one of largest and powerful snakes in the world. There are 26 different species of pythons are in the world. They live in rainforests and deserts of Africa and Asia. All species of pythons are non-venomous. Still pythons are potentially harmful to human because they are large and powerful. There are a number of documented cases about python attack on human.
The African pythons, Indian pythons, Burmese pythons and Amethystine pythons are most dangerous species within the family of python. Some species of pythons also found as pets as they are non-venomous. The ball python is one of most popular exotic pets in the world.
Most species of pythons have skin color similar to their habitat. It helps them to hide away from the preys and to make a surprise attack. They also have heat sensing organs to detect the presence of the prey.
Pythons kill their preys by constriction. They will wrap around the prey and squeeze it until it suffocates. Then the python will swallows the whole dead prey in one piece. Their diet includes deer, wild pigs, mice and small mammals.
1 Anaconda
Anacondas are the largest and heaviest known species of snakes in the world. They have a length between 25 -30 feet and weigh up to 230 kilograms. Anacondas can be found in tropical rainforests of South America. There are four different types of anacondas, green anaconda, yellow anaconda, dark spotted anaconda and Bolivian anaconda.
Green anaconda is the largest species of Anaconda in the world. All species of Anacondas are non-venomous. Anacondas are not potentially dangerous to humans. But they are powerful enough to kill a human. The anaconda attacks on human are extremely rare in the world. Anacondas only attack us when they get threatened.
Like pythons Anacondas also possess constriction method to kill their prey. They coil around the large prey an crush down its bones to swallow it. Anacondas mainly eat wild pigs, turtles, fishes and caimans.
