Colubrids of Morocco

No. Morocco's 12 colubrid species are all harmless to people. A few of them, the two False Smooth Snakes, the Southern Smooth Snake and the North African Catsnake, have small fangs set at the back of the mouth and a very weak venom that works on lizards, not on humans. To check whether a snake you have seen is non-venomous, use our venomous or harmless guide.

Look at the top of the head and at the eye. Colubrids carry a few large, symmetrical plates on the crown, a slim body and, in most species, a round pupil. Vipers have many small irregular head scales, a broad triangular head and a vertical, slit-like pupil.

One exception is worth knowing: the North African Catsnake (Telescopus tripolitanus) is a harmless colubrid with a vertical pupil, so the head scales stay the most reliable clue. Our identification guide and venomous or harmless guide walk you through it.

In most of the north it is the Horseshoe Whip Snake (Hemorrhois hippocrepis), a fast, harmless colubrid that follows rodents into gardens, ruins and old walls, and in the south its counterpart the Algerian Whip Snake (Hemorrhois algirus). They bluff loudly when cornered and can bite if grabbed, but they are not venomous and are completely harmless.

Give the animal a clear way out, keep children and pets back, and it will leave on its own. Killing it is illegal under law 29-05.

Almost certainly not. The Viperine Water Snake (Natrix maura) is a harmless colubrid that hunts fish and tadpoles and carries a zigzag pattern along the back. When threatened it flattens its head, hisses and strikes with a closed mouth, a pure bluff that has earned it its name and a great deal of undeserved killing.

In the far north you may also meet the Red-eyed Grass Snake (Natrix astreptophora), which plays dead instead.

Twelve species in eight genera, the largest snake family in the country: two whip snakes, two water snakes, two diadem snakes, two False Smooth Snakes, the Southern Smooth Snake, the Awl-headed Snake, the Sahel Egg Eater and the North African Catsnake. The full list, with Arabic names, is in the checklist on this page.

Yes. The Sahel Egg Eater (Dasypeltis sahelensis) swallows bird eggs whole, cracks them on bony spines inside its spine, then spits out the shell. It has almost no teeth and cannot hurt you. Its defence is theatre: it coils, rubs its scales together to make a rasping sound and strikes with an empty mouth, a very convincing viper impression.

The Horseshoe Whip Snake and the diadem snakes (Spalerosophis sp.) are the bulkiest, and large adults can approach 1.5 metres. The longest snakes in the country are not colubrids: they are the Montpellier Snakes (Malpolon sp.), psammophiids that can pass 2 metres.

Clean the wound with soap and water, as you would for any small cut. No antivenom, no tourniquet, nothing to cut or suck. See a doctor if the wound looks infected or if your vaccinations are not up to date. If you are not sure the snake was harmless, treat it as a viper bite and follow the guide on our snakes page.

Standard Arabic uses حنش (hanch) for this kind of snake, as opposed to أفعى (af'a) for a viper. In Moroccan Darija a colubrid is l'hanch, and hearing that word rather than lafaa is usually good news. Several species carry their own Darija names, which change from region to region.