How many venomous snakes are there in the Philippines?

Sixteen venomous species appear in the Snakédex sighting record, out of 66 species recorded in total. Ten are classified highly venomous and six venomous. Most are elapids — cobras, coral snakes and sea kraits — with three pit vipers.

What is the most commonly seen venomous snake in the Philippines?

The Northern Philippine Cobra, Naja philippinensis, with 3,180 sightings in the record. It is most often reported in Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Cavite, Bulacan and Isabela — the farmland provinces of central and northern Luzon.

Are most snakes in the Philippines venomous?

No. Of 26,139 sightings confirmed to a species, 15,219 are non-venomous and 4,230 are mildly venomous, meaning most snakes people photograph pose no serious risk. Around a quarter fall into the venomous or highly venomous classes.

What should I do if a venomous snake bites me?

Treat it as a medical emergency and get to a hospital immediately. Do not wait to see whether symptoms develop, and do not try to catch or kill the snake — a photo from a safe distance is enough for identification.

Venomous Snakes in the Philippines: What 26,139 Sightings Show

August 16, 2026 · 4 min read · Snakédex Field Notes

Sixteen venomous species appear in the Snakédex sighting record for the Philippines, out of 66 species recorded across all 81 provinces. Of the 26,139 sightings identified to a confirmed species, 6,239 are of highly venomous snakes and 451 of venomous ones — roughly a quarter of the total. The two Philippine cobras dominate that share: Naja philippinensis with 3,180 sightings in the north and Naja samarensis with 1,834 in the south. The other 15,219 confirmed sightings are of non-venomous snakes.

How many venomous snakes the Philippines actually has

The Snakédex record holds 49,830 sightings from all 81 provinces, covering 66 species. Sixteen of those species are venomous enough to matter: ten classified highly venomous, six venomous.

Thirteen of the sixteen are elapids — the family that includes cobras, coral snakes and sea kraits. The remaining three are pit vipers: the North Philippine Temple Pit Viper (Tropidolaemus subannulatus), the Philippine Pit Viper (Trimeresurus flavomaculatus), and the Batanes Pit Viper (Trimeresurus mcgregori), which appears exactly once in the entire record.

Of the 26,139 sightings identified to a confirmed species:

15,219 non-venomous
4,230 mildly venomous
6,239 highly venomous
451 venomous

So about a quarter of confirmed identifications are of a snake in the two venomous classes. Put the other way: three out of four snakes people photograph in the Philippines are not a serious threat to them.

That ratio comes with a caveat worth stating. This is a record of what people photographed and submitted, not a population survey. A cobra in a rice field gets photographed and reported far more reliably than a small brown snake in leaf litter, and both get reported far more often near towns than deep in forest. The counts reflect where people live and look as much as where snakes live.

A glossy blue-black cobra with its head and neck raised off the ground, photographed at night against a pale pink concrete wall — Raised off the ground with the neck flattened — the posture a cobra takes when it has noticed you and wants you to notice it.Southern Philippine Cobra · *Naja samarensis* · DipologSee the original post on Facebook

The two cobras, north and south

Two species account for most of the venomous sightings, and they split the country between them.

Northern Philippine Cobra (Naja philippinensis) — 3,180 sightings, the most-recorded venomous snake in the country. Endemic to the Philippines. Its top provinces are Pangasinan (314), Nueva Ecija (277), Cavite (227), Bulacan (199) and Isabela (189): the farmland belt of central and northern Luzon, where rice paddies, rodents and people overlap.

Southern Philippine Cobra (Naja samarensis) — 1,834 sightings, also endemic. Its range is the mirror image: Samar (207), Davao del Sur (196), Leyte (195), Bohol (119) and South Cotabato (100).

If you are in Luzon, the cobra you are looking at is almost certainly the northern species. In the Visayas and Mindanao, the southern one.

King cobras and the Palawan outliers

Three king cobra entries appear in the record. The Luzon King Cobra (Ophiophagus salvatana) has 638 sightings, most in Benguet (107). Records still filed under the older catch-all Ophiophagus sp. number 471, led by Cebu (115). The Sunda King Cobra (Ophiophagus bungarus) has 38, concentrated in Palawan (24) and Mindoro.

Palawan is the interesting case. It also holds every one of the 62 Equatorial Spitting Cobra (Naja sumatrana) sightings in the record — all 62, no other province. Palawan sits on its own continental shelf, biologically closer to Borneo than to the rest of the country, and its snake list shows it.

A slender snake with narrow black and cream bands looped on grey concrete, its short tail tipped in bright coral red — The red tail tip is the giveaway. Coral snakes flash it while hiding the head, which is why the tail is what most people photograph first.Philippine Barred Coral Snake · *Hemibungarus calligaster* · Trece MartiresSee the original post on Facebook

Coral snakes, vipers and sea snakes

The remaining venomous species are all uncommon in the record:

Philippine Barred Coral Snake (Hemibungarus calligaster) — 146

sightings, most in Cavite, Laguna and Rizal.

North Philippine Temple Pit Viper (Tropidolaemus subannulatus) — 127,

led by Davao del Sur.

Philippine Pit Viper (Trimeresurus flavomaculatus) — 122, led by

Benguet.

Philippine False Coral Snake (Hemibungarus gemianulis) — 45, mostly

Cebu and Negros.

Banded Sea Krait (Laticauda colubrina) — 11, scattered across coastal

provinces.

Below that the numbers thin to single figures: Hemibungarus mcclungi (8), Laticauda laticaudata (5), and one sighting each of Calliophis philippina, Hydrophis cyanocinctus and Trimeresurus mcgregori. Species this rare in the record are the ones most likely to be misidentified, which is why every ID here goes through review before it counts as verified.

A reddish-brown snake with darker blotches coiled tightly on a damp mossy rock, caught in a camera flash at night — Pit vipers are ambush hunters and sit still for a long time, which is why so many of the photographs of them are taken after dark.Philippine Pit Viper · *Trimeresurus flavomaculatus* · CatanduanesSee the original post on Facebook

If you meet one

Back away and leave it alone. Snakes do not chase people, and nearly every bite happens when someone tries to handle, catch or kill the animal.

If you want it identified, photograph it from a distance you would be comfortable standing at anyway, and submit the photo. If someone is bitten, that is a medical emergency: go to a hospital immediately rather than waiting to see whether symptoms appear.

You can browse every one of these sightings province by province on the Snakédex map, or test how well you can tell a cobra from a wolf snake in Who's That Snake?.