• North Carolina Partners in Amphibian & Reptile Conservation

Herp Identification

American Toad identification – © Kimberly Burge

Have you found a herp and now you want to identify it? We at NCPARC treasure and value the lives of all herp species. It is our goal to help you identify herps so that you can use caution if need be or grow your knowledge of herps. The resources below may be useful for identification of North Carolina species, but some are also useful outside of the state.

The two best online herp identification guides for North Carolina are:
NC Wildlife Resources Commission Species Profiles
Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina

NC Venomous Snake Booklet is available as a free PDF download.

Printable Snakes of NC (two sided, color 8.5 x 14″ legal size):  Snakes of NC ID

Printable, foldable brochure on Understanding Snakes in North Carolina

If you are on Facebook there are some good herp identification groups that may be able to assist you quickly:

Once you identify the herps you found in North Carolina, please help us out by entering them into HerpMapper.

Download the mobile app for HerpMapper and log your finds wherever you go.

We have some other general ID guides available via the button below or scroll down for a description of each guide.

Box Turtle Card – Don’t Take Him Home: Use this card to identify our Eastern box turtle and understand why you should not relocate or take him home with you.

Is it a Water Moccasin?: Are you convinced you have found a water moccasin? UGA has created this very informative document to help you determine a correct identification.

Southern Hognose Informational Flier: Southern hognose snakes are very similar to the more commonly found species, the Eastern Hognose. Learn more about this Southern hognose snake from this flier.