Snakes in Vietnam

Vietnam has around 200 snake species, most of which, like the kraits, cobras, and vipers, are increasingly venomous. The deadliest snake dwelling here in places close to water sources is the Malayan krait. Its venom levels are so high that the survival chances from its bite are extremely rare.

The many-banded krait, one of the world’s most venomous snakes, was referred to as the two-step snake by the American soldiers who encountered it at the time of the Vietnam War. It was perhaps a belief among the soldiers that this snake’s venom was lethal enough to kill the victim in just two steps. Some even called it the cigarette snake since the time it took to kill equalled the time taken to smoke a cigarette. However, many labeled this as a myth or misbelieve since true that it is deadly, delivering fatal bites, but not to the extent as estimated.

As per speculations, the guerrilla forces often carried snakes (the bamboo pit vipers) as a trap to capture and kill their enemy who came searching for them.

Groups	Venomous	Non-venomous
Kraits	Red River Krait Blue-lipped Sea Krait Red-headed Krait Northeastern Hill Krait Banded Krait Many-banded Krait Malayan Krait Yellow-lipped Sea Krait	–
Vipers	Fea’s Viper White-lipped Viper Russell’s Viper Common Mock Viper	–
Trimeresurus	Ruby-eyed Green Pit Viper	–
Tropidolaemus	Wagler’s Pit Viper	–
Hydrophis	Stoke’s Sea Snake Horned Sea Snake	–
Hypsiscopus	Rice Paddy Snake	–
Erpeton	Tentacled Snake
Elapinae	King Cobra	–
Naja	Thai-spitting Cobra Chinese Cobra	–
Malayopython	—	Reticulated Python
Ahaetulla	Asian Vine Snake	–
Boiga	Square-headed Cat Snake	–
Enhydris	Chinese Water Snake	–
Protobothrops	Three-horned Scaled Pit Viper
Xenodermidae	–	Bourret’s Odd-scaled Snake Peters’ Odd-scaled Snake
Acrochordus	–	Little File Snake
Opisthotropis	–	Anderson’s Stream Snake
Hebius	–	Andrea’s Keelback Annam Keelback Buff Striped Keelback Northern Keelback Vietnam Water Snake
Gonyosoma	–	Rhinoceros Ratsnake Rein Snake Red-tailed Green Ratsnake
Orthriophis	–	Beauty Rat Snake
Oligodon	–	Chinese Kukri Snake
Calamaria	–	Collared Reed Snake
Pareas	–	Common Slug Snake
Cylindrophis	–	Red-tailed Pipe Snake
Dendrelaphis	–	Striped Bronzeback
Elaphe	–	King Rat Snake
Ptyas	–	Greater Green Snake
Argyrophis	–	Vietnam Worm Snake
Rhabdophis	–	Specklebelly Keelback
Lycodon	–	Banded Wolf Snake Oriental Wolf Snake

Quick Information

Deadliest Snake: Malayan Krait

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