60 free Snake trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
51 free Snake trivia questions with answers. Snakes turn up in more of our stories than almost any other animal, from the Garden of Eden to Indiana Jones, and this quiz covers the real creatures as thoroughly as the legends. You will meet the world's longest, heaviest, smallest and most venomous snakes, learn how a snake smells with its tongue and hears without ears, and find out which countries have no snakes at all and why the story about St Patrick does not hold up. The early questions are easy enough for a curious eight-year-old, the middle ones suit a pub quiz crowd, and the last stretch will test anyone who has kept snakes or studied herpetology. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference sources before publishing, and each question shows its explanation and citation after you answer. Play it for a shareable score, use it as a classroom warm-up for a reptile unit, or drop it into trivia night as an animal round nobody will forget.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Snakes are found on every continent except which one?
Antarctica
They also range as far north as the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia, and a few species live in the sea.
Q 02What does a snake do with its forked tongue?
Collect scent particles
The two tips give directional information about a smell, and even the anaconda's tongue works efficiently underwater.
Q 03The vomeronasal organ in the roof of a snake's mouth is commonly known by which anatomist's name?
Jacobson's
The organ was actually described by Frederik Ruysch before 1732; the Danish anatomist it is named after only came along in 1813.
Q 04Instead of movable eyelids, what covers a snake's eyes?
A transparent scale
The scale is called a brille or spectacle, and it is shed along with the rest of the skin, which is why a snake's eyes turn cloudy before a molt.
Q 05How does a snake shed its skin?
In one complete piece
The old layer comes off like a sock turned inside out, and a snake may do it four or five times a year.
Q 06Roughly how many species of snakes are there?
About 3,900
The great majority are non-venomous, and venomous species use their venom mainly to subdue prey rather than for defence.
Q 07Which snake is the longest venomous snake in the world, with a record length of 5.85 metres?
King cobra
Its genus name Ophiophagus means snake-eater; it preys mainly on other snakes, including pythons and cobras.
Q 08The world's longest venomous snake is the only one known to do what with its eggs?
Build an above-ground nest
The female gathers leaf litter into a mound and guards it throughout incubation, unusual devotion in a group that mostly abandons its eggs.
Q 09The black mamba is not actually black. What part of it gives the snake its name?
The inside of its mouth
It gapes to show the inky lining as a threat display, and it is Africa's longest venomous snake.
Q 10Which shy Australian snake is considered the most venomous in the world by the LD50 test in mice?
Inland taipan
A single bite is estimated to carry enough venom to kill more than 100 adults, yet the snake lives in remote semi-arid country and is placid by nature.
Q 11What is the longest snake species alive today?
Reticulated python
A captive one in Kansas City named Medusa is recognised by Guinness as the longest living snake ever kept in captivity, at 7.67 metres.
Q 12Which South American snake is the heaviest in the world?
Green anaconda
Females are far bigger than males, averaging around 4.6 metres against about 3 for the males.
Q 13The Barbados threadsnake, one of the world's smallest snakes, was compared by its discoverer to the width of what?
A spaghetti noodle
Herpetologist Blair Hedges described it in 2008 and named it after his wife Carla; adults average about 10 cm and eat termites and ant larvae.
Q 21Snakes have no external ears. Which body part do they rest on the ground to pick up vibrations in stereo?
Their lower jaw
The two halves of the jaw move independently, so a snake with its chin on the ground can tell which side a vibration is coming from.
Q 22Snake venom is a modified form of what?
Saliva
The venom glands are modified parotid salivary glands, sitting behind and below each eye inside a muscular sheath.
Q 23Albert Calmette's 1890s antivenom, the first sold commercially, was produced by immunising which animals?
Horses
Calmette used Indian cobra venom at the Pasteur Institute; today's US pit-viper antivenom CroFab is made in sheep instead.
Q 14Titanoboa, the largest snake ever found, was discovered in a coal mine in which country?
Colombia
The fossils came from the Cerrejón mines and the animal, which lived about 60 million years ago, may have reached 12.8 metres and over 1,000 kg.
Q 15Which of these countries genuinely has no native snakes?
Ireland
Iceland and New Zealand are also snake-free, though sea snakes occasionally drift into New Zealand's northern waters.
Q 16What is the scientific verdict on the legend that St Patrick banished every serpent from the island?
It never had any after the Ice Age
A Roman writer noted the island's lack of snakes back in the third century, long before Patrick, and the earliest snake-banishing story was told about a different saint.
Q 17Brazil's Ilha da Queimada Grande is closed to the public because it is home to thousands of what?
Golden lancehead vipers
The critically endangered pit viper lives nowhere else and eats birds; only the Brazilian Navy and vetted researchers may land.
Q 18The rattle on a rattlesnake's tail is made of what?
Hollow keratin segments
A new segment is added each time the snake sheds, and the eastern diamondback, the largest species, can reach 2.4 metres.
Q 19Rattlesnakes are native only to which part of the world?
The Americas
The 36 species range from southern Canada to central Argentina and are the leading cause of snakebite injuries in North America.
Q 20What does the small pit in front of each eye on pit vipers such as rattlesnakes sense?
Infrared heat
The pits work as a sixth sense for finding warm-blooded prey in the dark and may even help judge its size.
Q 24About what fraction of adults fear snakes, making ophidiophobia one of the commonest phobias?
One third
Psychologists have found people learn to fear snakes and spiders far more readily than flowers or electrical outlets.
Q 25In Greek myth, which hero beheaded Medusa, the Gorgon with snakes for hair?
Perseus
He kept using the severed head as a weapon, since it could still turn onlookers to stone, before giving it to Athena for her shield.
Q 26What is the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail called?
Ouroboros
One of its earliest appearances is on a shrine enclosing Tutankhamun's sarcophagus, and it later became a favourite of alchemists.
Q 27The Rod of Asclepius, the symbol of medicine, shows how many snakes wrapped around a staff?
One
The two-snake, winged caduceus belongs to Hermes and is often misused for medicine, especially in the United States.
Q 28The rearing cobra worn on the crowns of Egyptian pharaohs is called what?
Uraeus
It represents the cobra goddess Wadjet, and paired with the vulture of Nekhbet it stood for the union of Lower and Upper Egypt.
Q 29In Norse myth, the world-encircling serpent that bites its own tail is which god's child?
Loki
Its siblings are the wolf Fenrir and Hel, and the moment it releases its tail is one of the signs that Ragnarök has begun.
Q 30The board game Snakes and Ladders originated in which country as a lesson about virtue and vice?
India
It was called Moksha Patam, ladders were virtues and snakes were vices; the American version became Chutes and Ladders in 1943.