Venomous or Non-Venomous

I have seen many people asking the question, "How can I identify venomous snakes ?" on various wildlife forums. One of the forum members answered saying all snakes with vertical slit shaped pupils are venomous. This is a common misconception. Granted , a vast majority of the viperids which are venomous have vertical slit shaped pupils, one cannot reach a conclusion that all snakes with vertical pupils are venomous and the ones without aren't. The King Cobra which is the longest venomous snake in the world has round pupils, and the Indian Rock Python which is a non-venomous snake has slit shaped pupils.

  Close-up shot of a King Cobra's head shows us that they have round pupils.

                        Indian Rock Python, a non-venomous snake has slit like pupils.

So, there is no one easy way to tell if a snake is venomous or non-venomous.The only way to find out if a snake is venomous is by identifying it. 

We can identify snakes using the following - size, colour, pattern or markings, scale texture, pupil shape, head shape, characteristic sound/growl/hiss, behavior, shape of tail, scale count,etc.

Identifying a snake helps during a medical emergency involving a snakebite or when reporting a snake in your house/garden to a rescuer. So it is essential you know to identify the snakes in your locality.