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15 of the world’s rarest snakes
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A Saint Lucia racer snake (Erythrolamprus ornatus) with dark patterned scales coiled on mossy rocks. Ashy morph of the Santa Catalina Rattlesnake (Crotalus catalinensis), a slender pale gray rattlesnake endemic to Isla Santa Catalina, Baja California Sur, with faint body patterning and a triangular head Wagner Mountain Viper (Montivipera wagneri) moving across a rough rocky surface, its thick body and patterned scales blending with the stones as it crawls forward. A Vipera anatolica, with a stout body and distinctive zigzag-patterned brown and gray scales lies tightly coiled among green grass. A slender Clarion Island Whip Snake (Masticophis anthonyi) with a long, narrow body and smooth brownish-gray scales crawls gracefully across sandy ground. Close-up of a Golden Lancehead (Bothrops insularis), a thick-bodied pit viper with rough, golden-yellow scales and a distinct triangular head with visible heat-sensing pits.
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A Saint Lucia racer snake (Erythrolamprus ornatus) with dark patterned scales coiled on mossy rocks.
The Saint Lucia racer is widely considered the rarest snake in the world A Saint Lucia racer photographed in Maria Major in 2016.

15 of the world’s rarest snakes

Written by
Shabnam Dohutia
Shabnam Dohutia is executive editor, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Having worked in various editorial positions at Oxford University Press and Pearson, Shabnam has almost two decades’ experience in content...
Shabnam Dohutia
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
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‱History

Very little is known about the rarest snakes in the world because, well, they are few in number, and it is difficult to draw accurate estimates of population and behavior from just a handful of specimens that researchers have managed to track and study. Some species of rare snakes, including the Yoro Mountain forest snake and the Hong Kong blind snake, are known from data observed from just one or two specimens. Numbers have dwindled...

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