Snakes - venomous snakes - Alive !! (long post)

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day all

Travelling thru Qld at the moment, we came across a wildlife park called 'Snakes Alive' which advertises amongst other things, a display of the world's most venomous snakes. I knew that Australia hosts heaps of venomous snakes, but to find that 9 of the world's top 10 venomous snakes are all dinkum Aussies was news to me

The young lady giving the display was well rigged out with heavy clothing and industrial work boots, but she was so relaxed with the snakes I was just amazed.
It seems that all venomous snakes are graded against the Indian Cobra (for some reason) and that snake gets a value of "1" on the toxicity scale

1)- Aussie 'Death Adder'


2)- Aussie 'Mainland Tiger'


3)- Aussie 'Inland Taipan'


The American Rattlesnake that Hollywood makes a big deal about gets a rating of "1/10x" ... that's right ... 0,1x
The Aussie Death Adder is rated at 1,5x (against the Cobra)
The Aussie Tiger snake is rated at 4x and
The Aussie Inland Taipan is rated at 50 to 80x !!!!!!

Anyone interested in following up this interesting topic can find more at
1)- https://www.snakesdownunder.com/ ... (the wildlife park)
2)- http://www.venomsupplies.com/toxicity/ ... an Aussie company that milks venomous snakes and spiders for supply of venom internationally to medical and research organisations

As always, feedback welcome
Phil

[Grumpy John]

Great story and images Phil. If your travels take up as far as Cairns do not miss the chance to visit Hartleys Crocodile Adventures. It is, hands down, the best reptile show I have ever seen, and so informative. I did not know about all venomous snakes being graded against the Cobra, but I did know that we had 9/10 of the deadliest.

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day GJ

I first visited Hartley's back in '68 on my first "Aussie-Tour" with 2 Melb Camera Club mates (doing a 6-wk Melb->Cairns-> Alice->Melb run) and back then they had a magazine article on display where a US mob had declared the Rattler as the world's most deadliest snake as 10/10 for toxicity. (Bit like their baseball teams being "the world series")

The CSIRO had released a response acticle, pasted alongside the US one and it rated the 'Qld Inland Taipan' as having a toxicity scale of 42/10 ... needless to say the US mob did not take kindly to that mob of colonials from Downunder laughing at their utterances
Phil

[Isac]

A lot of Americans don't kow that other countries exist Phil.

[wigz]

Interesting post Phil and good information. I’ve never seen a Death Adder that colour before - the ones I’ve seen have been a darker grey-brown.

[Isac]

Never seen any of those close up Phil and it's not on my todo list at present. I've seen a few dugites close up though. One was huge 4'-8" sliding around in our kitchen! I sprayed him with the Pea-Beau and it made it a bit groggy then I dragged it outside using a long stick. Scary day for my family. You photos are really good showing these guys off with their fabulous colours. Great info on the links too.

[HansE]

Did ya get a picture?

[Isac]

I did, but it was over 40 years ago! When I got it outside, I had to kill it because of the kids. My eldest son at the time put it in a huge pickle jar and took it to school for show and tell. If I can find the photo I'll post.

[Isac]

Here's one I photographed as it raced towards a small group of folks I was with at a nursing home. They knew it was hiding under a portable kitchen they had set up during renovations and when they started banging pots and pans and yelling etc, it just came out from under the portable and slithered towards us. By then I got the camera and managed only one shot but the oldies found some extra speed to get away from it. It took off to nearby bush and they called a ranger to deal with it.