“Herps” is the commonly used term for reptiles and amphibians which comes from the word, herpetology, which is the study of these two groups. Whether scared, curious, or uncertain about these “creeping” animals, you may encounter them and want to know exactly what it is that you’ve found.
Is a turtle laying eggs in your yard? Is that a lizard or a salamander in my garden? Is that snake dangerous? All these questions are pretty common and we are here to help! We have several field guides available in our online Herp Shop that are useful for identification.
Davidson College provides excellent online herp identification if you have some idea what kind of herp you have:
Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina
Need to learn about our six venomous snake species in NC? The NC Venomous Snake Booklet is available as a free PDF download.
If you are on Facebook there are some good herp identification groups that may be able to assist you quickly:
- Snake Identification
- Wild Snakes: Education and Discussion
- Reptile and Amphibian (Herp) Identification
- Lizard Identification
- Wild Testudines: Education and Discussion
- Wild Lizards: Education and Discussion
- Wild Amphibians: Education and Discussion
- Wild Crocodilians: Education and Discussion
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.
Still unsure? Fill out the form below with as many details as possible and we will get back to you soon.