Spain is home to more reptiles than any other European county, including a large number of endemics, particularly in the Canaries.
There are at least 45 species of land and freshwater reptiles in mainland Spain (the number is under debate).
Half of Spanish reptiles are to varying degrees threatened. Along with amphibians, their numbers have declined mostly in arable and livestock farming areas through habitat loss, leading to numerous and well-documented local extinctions. In contrast, populations in mountainous and heavily forested areas are in better condition, often coincidently backed by some form of protection. The loss of the mosaic of traditional farmland and forest, along with the massive use of pesticides since the 1960’s have eliminated reptiles and amphibians directly, and indirectly through loss of prey.
Dr. Bernadette Abela, a WHO scientist specializing in veterinary public health and zoonotic neglected tropical diseases, noted in 2026 that “climate change is shifting the distribution of snakes, altering when and where humans encounter them. Many venomous snake species—as well as coming more in contact with people—are projected to increase in abundance in certain regions. The general trend suggests that Spain could experience future changes in snake presence and activity.” Source: OK Diario
Snakes of Spain
14 species of snakes are found in the Iberian Peninsula, of which five are venomous. The Canaries were until recently snake-free, and no vipers are present in the Balearics.
Montpellier Snake (Malpolon monspessulanus) Culebra bastarda)+
False smooth snake (Macroprotodon brevis Culebra de cogulla)+
Grass Snake (Natrix natrix Culebra de collar
Ladder Snake (Elaphe scalaris) Culebra de escalera
Aesculapian Snake (Elaphe longissima) Culebra de Esculapio
Horseshoe Whip Snake (Hemorrhois hippocrepis) Culebra de herradura
Smooth Snake (Coronella austriaca) Culebra lisa europea
Southern Smooth Snake (Coronella girondica) Culebra lisa meridional
Western Whip Snake (Coluber viridiflavus) Culebra verdiamarilla
Viperine Snake (Natrix maura) Culebra viperina
Asp Viper (Vipera aspis) Víbora aspid+
Seoane’s Viper (Vipera seoanei) Víbora de Seoane+
Snub-Nosed Viper or Lataste’s viper (Vipera latastei) Víbora hocicuda+
Venomous snakes
Three species of vipers are present in Spain.
They are all distinguished by their triangular head, short length and a zigzag pattern on their back. By far the most widespread of the vipers, Lataste’s viper, is present throughout the southern two-thirds of the Peninsula, though nowhere is it common. It lives in dry, rocky areas, away from humans and is timid. Seoane’s viper lives in Galicia, León, the Cantabrian coastal strip (Cornisa Cantábrica) and the Basque Country. Older books class Seoane’s viper as a subspecies of the common viper or adder (Vipera berus) but they are now considered a separate species, and the only endemic snake in Spain. The asp viper is restricted to the Pyrenees.
If you are bitten by a viper remain calm and seek medical attention immediately. I was told of a case in Zamora of a man who was bitten by a Lataste’s viper. He managed to get to a bar and an ambulance was called, but he decided instead to cycle the 12 hilly kilometres to the health centre. It was exertion which pumped the venom around his body which killed him. Bites tend to occur in spring and summer as snakes hibernate in early autumn in much of the Peninsula. Around 100-150 people are hospitalised every year in Spain from viper bites, but deaths these days are much rarer. The expansion in rural health facilities and the fact that there aren’t as many people working in the countryside means that a death only occurs every other year or so. Far more people die from bee and wasp stings.
Growing to a fearsome 2 metres in length, the Montpelier is Europe’s largest snake, and probably the commonest snake in the Mediterranean region and in Spain. This is despite the numerous deaths on the roads to which it is attracted in search of heat, and its direct persecution by humans – it is seen as a threat to small game species and farm birds. The Montpellier aeasily adapts to humanised environs, which push out its competitor snake species. It is in theory one of the five venomous snakes in Spain, though unlike the vipers the back position of its venom fangs means poison injection is unusual, and the latter reputedly weak. This is also the case of the false smooth snake.
Some other interesting reptiles
Chameleon
Chameleons (Chamaleo chameleon) were almost certainly introduced by humans, possibly by the Phoenicians as pets, more than two thousand years ago and are now threatened by the destruction of habitat from tourism and agriculture. My friend Chico had a pet chameleon….
Loggerhead turtle
Coming soon
Hermanni’s tortoise
Hermann’s tortoises (Testudo hermanni) live all along the northern Mediterranean from Greece, through Italy and France and into Spain, where, by the late 1970s they were on the verge of extinction, barely and solely hanging in the Albera hills. They had disappeared from much of their range, struck by deforestation, intensive agriculture, urban development and above all since the 20th century due to mass collection for the domestic and international pet trade. Populations of all five?? species of tortoises across the Mediterranean plummeted as millions were gathered for the pet trade, fed by planeloads of tortoises shipped in bulk stacked up in crates on top of each other, until importing wild Mediterranean species was banned (for example in the UK in 1984).
I was unable to find one in the wild, so I met Albert Martínez Silvestre, vet and manager of CRARC, the Catalan reptile conservation centre in Masquefa northwest of Barcelona. Small crocodiles lazed in pools: Albert is the man they call when one turns up in the wild released by people who can no longer deal with their exotic pets. My parents had recently been to Greece and sent me photos of dozens of tortoises of the similar Spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) wandering around the Acropolis. Why weren’t there these densities found here in Spain? Albert explained, “They were. Until perhaps 100 years ago. We’re trying to bring them back. In themselves, tortoises are not difficult animals to reintroduce. They breed well in captivity, but some people still take them as pets and above all ten years’ work can be destroyed in one day by fire. And we are releasing them into what are often impoverished habitats with not enough food and where the food chain has broken down. Wild boar are a big problem too as they love a tortoise. Fewer people hunt these days and there are no wolves. Tortoises are at the bottom of the food chain. The best thing you do to have a healthy population of tortoises would be to bring back wolves.”
Ocellated lizard
Growing up to 90cm from head to tail, the ocellated lizard is Europe’s largest. The alternative English name of jewelled lizard gives you an idea of its handsome appearance decorated with lines of black pearls and shining blue rosettes, not that you’d want to go picking one up as they have a feisty bite. Of course they fear us far more than we need to fear them.
Folklore associated with lizards
In some parts, it was believed that lizards were friends of men, while snakes were related to women. Lizards would leap at women during their period (I’ve heard about this first hand). Similarly, geckos were said to chase after women. There were also stories of lizards climbing into women’s vaginas while they slept. In the southeast there was the belief that if you came across a lizard with two tails and you put it in a plate scattered with flour, it would draw the winning numbers in the lottery (two-tailed lizards occasionally occur when a new tail is re-grown without the old one having been totally severed). Lizard tails were also thought to cure warts. Evidently, this belief should be energetically refuted as the loss of its tail can cause great harm.
Geckos are known as pelás in Murcia. We could translate this as balders in English, as the name comes from the belief that if you were misfortunate enough for a gecko to fall on your head you would go bald as a coot. In some villages just the mere spit from a gecko was enough to leave you hairless. All no doubt true, although biologists claim that geckos can’t spit.
See more reptile folklore in the excellent: Anfibios y Reptiles de la Peninsula Iberica e Islas Baleares (Guias Verdes) by Toni Aragón Rebollo, 2006.
Lizard eating tradition
In some parts of rural Spain, there was a tradition of eating lizards, always the larger lacerta and usually ocellated. I knew a guy in Zaragoza who would eat them once a year, as late as the early 1990s, as part of his village’s festivities. Barcelona author Juan Goytisolo mentions the custom in his 1959 ‘Campos de Nijar’, a poetic and fascinating description of his travels around a poverty stricken Almeria. Here, he is sharing the back of a lorry with gold miners:
“The road crosses a stream of stones. We drive up the slope and up again, the landscape is almost lunar. Parched white land, scrub and screes follow each other until they disappear over the horizon. The floor is covered in stone fragments. In summer the stones retain the heat and bake until cracking. For several kilometres around there’s not a single tree to be seen.
-Look
The man with the rope points out a lizard more than half a metre long: It sits still on the edge of the road and seems unconcerned by our passing.
-If we’d stopped for a moment, I would have caught it. The people round here eat them.
I tell him that in some villages in Catalonia the farmers often eat them roasted.
– We eat them cook in tomato, with spot of garlic and parsley. They’re delicious.
The renowned toad-like Spanish gourmet Nestor Luján enjoyed lizard, recommending the Extramaduran recipe in a salsa verde with white wine. He claimed they tasted of the country, of thyme, of rosemary, and though unable to precise a flavour to describe them proclaimed they were delicious.
Times have changed however. The late-great Marxist gourmet and thriller writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán noted in his superb culinary ‘Diccionario Indispensable para la Supervivencia’ (2003) that ”Given the rarity of this simpatico animal, it would better not to eat it, but to give it things to eat .”
Just in case you get any bright ideas, ocellated lizards are now relatively rare and fully protected!
Lizards of Iberian Peninsula and the Balearics
Lución Anguis fragilis Slow worm
Camaleón común Chamaeleo chamaeleon Mediterranean Chameleon
Culebrilla ciega Blanus cinereus Iberian Worm Lizard
Eslizón ibérico Chalcides bedriagai Bedriagai’s Skink
Eslizón tridáctilo Chalcides striatus Western Three-toed Skink
Lagartija balear Podarcis lilfordi Lilford’s Wall Lizard
Lagartija cenicienta Psammodromus hispanicus Spanish Psammodromus
Lagartija colilarga Psammodromus algirus Spanish Sand Racer
Lagartija colirroja Acanthodactylus erythrurus Fringe-Fingered Lizard
Lagartija de Bocage Podarcis bocagei Bocage’s Wall Lizard
Lagartija de Carbonell Podarcis carbonelli Carbonell’s Wall Lizard
Lagartija de las Pitiusas Podarcis pityusensis Ibiza Wall Lizard
Lagartija de turbera Lacerta vivipara Viviparous Lizard
Lagartija de Valverde Algyroides marchi Valverde Lizard
Lagartija ibérica Podarcis hispanica Iberian Wall Lizard
Lagartija italiana Podarcis sicula Italian Wall Lizard
Lagartija pirenaica Lacerta bonnali Pyrenean lizard
Lagartija roquera Podarcis muralis Wall Lizard
Lagartija serrana Lacerta monticola Iberian Rock Lizard
Lagarto ágil Lacerta agilis Sand Lizard
Lagarto ocelado Lacerta lepida Ocellated/Jewelled/Eyed Lizard
Lagarto verde Lacerta viridis Green Lizard
Lagarto verdinegro Lacerta schreiberi Schreiber’s Green Lizard
The Canaries
Formed in isolation some 30 million years ago, the Canaries support few species of mammals and no native amphibians or snakes, but are home to a remarkable 14 endemic species of lizards. Several are endangered, with their populations whittled down by the predation of introduced cats, the historical consumption by people, and habitat destruction for agriculture. As is well known, endangered species are highly vulnerable to freak natural events. An example was the 2007 storms which killed some 180 El Hierro giant lizards leaving just 78 breeding animals alive in the world. They are now subject to an intense conservation scheme. On a more positive note, remarkably, a single La Palma giant lizard (Gallotia auaritae) was rediscovered on the Island of La Palma in 2007, decades after being thought extinct, though subsequent searches have been unsuccessful in finding more.
Glossary
serpiente – snake (generic term), culebra – snake of colubrid familyxxx, víbera-viper, escama-scale, mudar la piel – to moult , serp (Cat) – snake, sisear – to hiss