Muscat – The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism (MHT) has released the second edition of the Guide to Snakes in the Sultanate of Oman that illustrates various types of snake species – including venomous, mildly toxic and harmless types -found in the sultanate.

This comprehensive guide aims to raise awareness about the various types of snakes found in Oman, and help people avoid the danger of venomous snakes and prevent the mistaken harm of non-venomous ones.

The guide’s scientific content was prepared by Hanan bint Mansour al Nabhaniyah, head of the Collections Management Department at the Natural History Museum.

In a statement, MHT informed that the scientific material of the guide was reviewed by Dr Salvador Karenza, a herpetology expert at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, Spain, and researcher Ahmed al Busaidi, a wildlife specialist at the University of Nizwa.

The guide details the characteristics and features of all types of snakes found in Oman.

Hanan explained that the primary danger of snakes in Oman and the Gulf comes from marine snakes and nine types of land snakes. The book informs that different snake species are not uniformly distributed across Oman. For instance, the black desert cobra is absent from northern Oman, the horned snake inhabits sandy areas, the false horned snake is found in the northern high mountains, while the puffed snake, pit viper and Arabian cobra are found in southern Oman.

Hanan mentioned that the guide includes local and mountain names of these snakes, noting that many commonly seen snake species do not pose a danger to humans. 

“Most snakes naturally avoid humans and will only bite if provoked. Even when they do bite, they often do not inject venom, and it is rare for the venom to cause serious harm to humans. Fatal snake bites are extremely rare.”

The guide offers general information and scientific facts about snakes, explaining the differences between various species. It also includes an index of snake names in Arabic, providing crucial information on prevention, avoidance, and first aid procedures for snake bites.

The guide is available in both Arabic and English within the same volume.