A large mulga snake has met an untimely death after getting its head stuck in an empty beer can.

The outback find has prompted a conservation group to highlight one of the lesser-considered effects of littering.

The dead snake was found near Borefield Road in the outback Roxby Downs region of South Australia with its head still inside the empty can.

Hannah Spronk from the group Arid Recovery said the reptile chose the wrong place to seek shelter.

She said littering was on the rise as the outback tourist season got underway and people needed to consider the harm it could cause for animals and the environment.

"People think the outback's big and vast and it is, but there is actually quite a few people that travel through it and you think that maybe your one little bit of rubbish that you throw out the window isn't going to have an impact, but clearly it does," she said.