Identifying venomous snakes is a lot more complicated than you’d think. There aren’t any hard and fast rules to distinguish a venomous snake from a non-venomous snake in southern Africa, and many people get bitten by snakes that they misidentify as ‘harmless’. Here we look at some misconceptions when it comes to venomous and non-venomous snake identification, and what to do when you encounter a venomous snake.