Yes there are snakes in Malta, although fortunately I haven’t come across any of them in person yet. In fact there are four distinct types of snake slithering around the place and all four of them have suitably cool/dangerous sounding names. There’s a Cat Snake; a Leopard Snake; an Algerian Whip Snake and the biggest of the bunch is the 2 metre-long Black Whip Snake. Now the good news is that despite the impressive names, none of these guys are dangerous to humans, although they may give your heart a bit of a jump if you spot one sliding under your bed covers. So you know what to look out for, here’s a brief description of each:
Cat Snake:
Described as ‘shy and nocturnal’, which is probably a good thing. It does have poison fangs, but they’re stuck in the back of it’s mouth so they only work on things like rats and mice, and the poison is too weak to harm us anyway. Lives in the south-east of the island.
Black Whip Snake:
Can grow up to 2 metres and has a worryingly fearsome name. According to the Shadowservices site (see below) it is ‘lively’ and ‘when cornered it strikes and bites furiously’. Furiously! Don’t like the sound of that, whether it’s venomous or not. (Just to clarify, it’s not venomous).
Algerian Whip Snake:
There aren’t too many of these about – in fact there’s a wider selection of photos of (for example) the Loch Ness monster available on the internet than this fellow. Lives in rocks and eats small critters. You won’t, but if you do manage to snap klonopin online without one, please forward a picture..
Leopard Snake:
Also called a ‘Ratsnake’ which gives scope for all sorts of unpleasant mental images. Likes nature and is something of a tree-hugger. It’s not a hippy though – it doesn’t wear tie dye shirts and practice extremely liberal parenting – it just literally wraps itself around a tree whilst waiting for something edible to wander past.
Saint Paul and the Snake:
Legend has it that St Paul shipwrecked on Malta (hence numerous Paulian placenames about the island) and upon landing was promptly bitten by a venomous snake. A hardy soul, Paul is said to have tossed the creature into the fire and remained unharmed himself. Now this story works well on allegorical levels (satanic snakes and all that), but scientists say that there were no venomous snakes on the island at this time either. Which is kind of a spoilsport approach to the story. Scientists.
Not Venomous:
Notice the way I refer to “venomous” snakes all the time as opposed to poisonous ones? Little language fact for you here: ‘venomous’ means they can inject you with poison, ‘poisonous’ means containing poison which is harmful when ingested. So a Death Adder or an Australian Copperhead is venomous, and that apple the witch tries to give to Snow White is poisonous. The Maltese snakes aren’t venomous. I’ve no idea whether they are poisonous, but would suggest you refrain from eating them just to be on the safe side.
This site is excellent if you want a rather more professional-eye’s view of snakes in Malta: Shadowservices – Maltese Snakes
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The Bible indicates that THE PEOPLE expected Paul to die. It does NOT say the snake was venomous, only that the people expected Paul to drop, indicating the very real possibility that they were not completely familiar with snakes that chewed on hands. Further, when Paul did NOT drop, the people figured he was some kind of god, indicating they were a rather suspicious lot.
Not to come across as a doubting Thomas, but I was curious so I looked it up. Turns out we’re both right – depends which version/translation of the Bible you go for:
King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
English Standard Version (©2001)
When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”
King James Acts 28:3
And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
P.S. vipers are poisonous
We saw a snake when we were staying at the Hilton in Malta about 4 years ago. It was black so i’m guessing (rather intellectually) that it’s the black whip snake.
It’s the most common snake in malta
I saw an awesome black whip snake catch a mouse and slither off with it and I have the photo to prove it!
I am Maltese and I often trek in the countryside. All the snakes we have in Malta are harmless, and you will have a very difficult time in seeing any, because they slither away for shelter as soon as they sense a human approach.
The whip snake is indeed fearsome looking, but it likes wrapping itself of trees well above the height of a human and unless you are completely inane and asking for it, it will ignore you. As for the leopard snake, there is a mistake, it does not like to wrap around itself on trees at all. It usually slithers around rocks. The only local snake I have seen wrapping around trees is the whip snake, and it does actually grow longer than 2 meters.
Re: “it does actually grow longer than 2 meters”: Someone asked me about the pros & cons of retiring to Malta, and I couldn’t think of any cons. You have solved that dilemma nicely. 😉
Hey, this is nice and informative. I am an amateur herpetologist so I am very interested in what I might encounter whilst climbing the rocks in Malta. I’m probably not going to find alot as it’s not exactly the best time of year for attempting to find snakes.
But, just a little addition to your last fact. There are no snakes in the world that are Poisonous, you can ingest any type of venom as it is protein based. What the snakes inject through their fangs is venom, not poison. But I really appreciate that you have researched this as most places on the internet do not even do this level of research.
Good info sdfg. I won’t fear for my life next time I am served snake a l’orange at a friend’s house. I hope your snake-searching was fruitful while you were on the island.
I have seen 2 black whip snakes in malta in the 10 years I have lived here
We saw a black whip snake last week – well, we saw a black snake on a rather deserted hiking trail, but it disappeared in the undergrowth before I could get my camera out. The snake twitched when it saw us, my wife jumped about 1 metre, so I guess it was a lot more relaxed than we were (and even though I was curious and aware that Maltese snake aren’t venomous, I wasn’t stupid enough to follow it).
In my opinion this post is misleading as snakes are rarely seen in any part of this country. I was born here in Malta and have been living here since 1993 and I have never saw any type of snake. In addition, I have never heard of anyone saying that he or she encountered a snake.
I haven’t seen any snakes either ‘Maltese Person’, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. If you look at the comments above of Georgia, Steffen and Simon you will see that there certainly seem to be a few snakes resident on the island.
Let me assure the ‘Maltese Person’ there are plenty of snakes in Malta. I have seen a good few Black Whip Snakes in the north of the island. They seem to like lying on quite roads in the evening. Only seen 1 Cat Snake years ago. But Leopard Snakes are in abundance in my garden. The cat loves to eat them, while I try to safe them. There is 1 large ‘snake’ not sure of the type which loves to go for a swim in the pond!
Let me assure the ‘Maltese Person’ there are plenty of snakes in Malta. I have seen a good few Black Whip Snakes in the north of the island. They seem to like lying on quite roads in the evening. Only seen 1 Cat Snake years ago. But Leopard Snakes are in abundance in my garden. The cat loves to eat them, while I try to safe them. There is 1 large ‘snake’ not sure of the type which loves to go for a swim in the pond!
Hi I’m visiting malta for a couple of days next week and hoping to photograph some snakes please could you let me know where abouts in malta you are or the best place I may see them this would be a great help giving my limited time in Malta thanks
I have seen one snake on fourteen visits to Malta. It dropped from a tree beside a small road near Ta Qali and disappeared into the low stone wall beside the road. Looking at the photos I’d guess it may have been the Leopard Snake.
I’ve also seen one chameleon while I’ve been in Malta.
If I could put my name to this post it would be Tony, but it’s going to have to be anonymous as I don’t understand any of the other profile options.
I went for a walk up to see Ta Salvatur this afternoon. Walking up from the Marsalforn to Rabat road, there is a small cave in the neighbouring field on the left hand side of the track and there were two long black whip snakes twining around each other next to it. I’m not sure whether they were fighting or mating but we (me and my dog) stopped to watch them for several minutes. It was fascinating. I had to hold the dog back and eventually they became aware of our presence and disappeared into the rocks. It was great to see a bit of nature up close and not on a TV screen!
Wow – so there’s a confirmed black whip snake sighting in Gozo then. Sounds like an impressive sight, but I don’t know that I would’ve stuck around for too long to watch.
As a volunteer with Din L’art Helwa I go regularly to St Mary’s Tower on Comino. Today we saw a black whip snake on the island. Salvu, one of only four residents on Comino, says he has been bitten by them but has not come to any harm.
Walking on the Heritage Trail in Xemxija today and heard something moving though the dry grass which turned out to be a Black Whip Snake, about 1.5 metres in length.
You’re kidding me! I was just up there the other week, and we heard something rustling in the undergrowth but did not hang about to find out what it was!
My father, now deceased , was in the British Army based at St Patricks barracks.
There was a path between St Patrick and St Andrews barracks
I was 11 at the time ( Now 70) when a snake reared up from the scrub on the side of the path. I froze as it was only a few yards in front of me. The snake had a flared head and to this day i have always assumed it to be a Cobra.
We saw a black whip snake on Gozo two weeks ago on the road from the harbour at Mgarr to Qala. I commented to my brother in law who was driving the car that what I assumed was a thin strip of black rubber looked just like a snake crossing the road in front of us and he shocked me by replying that it was a snake!