Snake family · American pipe snake
Aniliidae
A single burrowing snake that mimics a coral snake.
About the Aniliidae family
The lone member of this family is the American pipe snake, a harmless burrower of South America boldly ringed in red and black so that it resembles a venomous coral snake, a bluff that helps deter predators.
- Where they live
- The Amazon basin and northern South America.
- How to recognize one
- Cylindrical body ringed in red and black, with a blunt head and tiny eyes.
- Danger to people
- Harmless. Non-venomous, despite its coral-snake-like rings.
Species (1)
Keep learning
- What Is a Snake? Anatomy and the BasicsA clear overview of what makes a snake a snake: limbless body plan, anatomy, evolution from lizards, species diversity, and why they are ectothermic.
- How Snakes Move, Hunt, and EatHow snakes move without legs, hunt as ambushers or active foragers, kill by constriction or venom, and swallow prey wider than their head.
- What Do Snakes Eat?All snakes are carnivores. Learn what snakes eat, how diet changes with size and age, how often they feed, and how they hunt and swallow prey.
- Venomous vs Nonvenomous: How to Tell the DifferenceThe folk rules for telling venomous snakes apart, where each one fails, and why location-based identification beats guessing by sight.
