The flow chart has been designed, as concisely as possible, to enable identification of a snake that has been brought in with a victim of snakebite. But there may be problems in reaching a conclusion. Colours and markings of snakes can fade with age as well as when they are nearing a moult. To enable confident identification, it may be necessary to rely on additional characters, such as the colour of the ventral aspect and the nature of the ventral scales of the tail.

A short PowerPoint programme has been incorporated, accessible from this file, to demonstrate some of the more important features mentioned as well as to illustrate non-venomous snakes that are generally considered venomous. These slides have been taken from the CD version of the Guidelines 2013 and feature images of many snakes together with explanatory notes.

Play Programme: