Australia is the venomous snake capital of the world. The top seven
most venomous snakes live in or near (in the case of sea snakes)
Australia, and eight of the top ten are found in or along the coasts of
Australia.
There are multiple ways venom is administered to mice for the median
lethal dose scale listed above, and the method I’m using (since numbers
using it are the most available) is called subcutaneous injection LD50.
The rating on this scale for the inland taipan is 0.025 mg/kg.
The Russell’s viper I mentioned in the introduction has a rating of 0.75
mg/kg, which means 30 times as much is needed as the inland taipan to
have the same result. The most venomous rattlesnake species, a snake I'm
familiar with here in California, has a rating of 0.6 mg/kg, meaning
the inland taipan’s venom is 24 times as powerful.
Inland taipans rarely bite humans, because they live only in remote
areas of Australia’s semi-arid interior and they are also quite shy.
However, if they are provoked or otherwise feel threatened, they strike
very quickly and accurately, and may strike multiple times. Anyone
bitten may not live more than 30 to 45 minutes.
Anti-venom exists for another taipan species in Australia, the coastal
taipan, which is actually in fourth place of all venomous snakes. This
anti-venom helps with those bitten by inland taipans but may not be
available nearby for anyone in the remote areas where the inland taipan
is found.
They reach six to eight feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters) in length and can be a
variety of colors – tan, yellowish, greenish, or dark brown, almost
black. They change color according to the seasons, being lighter during
the summer and darker during the winter. They specialize in hunting and
eating small mammals.
(Photo shows inland taipan summer coloration. From Wikipedia by AllenMcC, CC BY-SA 3.0.)
Although found along the coasts of Australia, this species is also
found through parts of the Indian Ocean, and in seas around Australia
and to the north near New Guinea and east toward New Caledonia. Their
venom rating on the scale discussed above is 0.044 mg/kg, meaning
slightly more than half as powerful as the inland taipan’s venom.
Sea snakes are fully adapted to living in the oceans,
and all but a few cannot move on land at all. There are at least 62
species, and all are venomous. They all live in a range similar to
Dubois’ sea snake, meaning throughout the Indian Ocean, near Australia
and Indonesia, and in the Western Pacific Ocean.
They have paddle-like tails and most can partially breathe through their
skin. Most are reluctant to bite humans, although fatalities have
sometimes occurred. Four of the top ten most venomous snakes are sea
snakes, and Dubois’ sea snake is the most poisonous of all of them.
They typically reach 3 to 4.5 feet (about 1 to 1.5 meters) in length,
and coloration and patterns on their scales have a huge amount of
variation. Like all but a few sea snake species, they give birth to live
young rather than laying eggs. They eat fishes and eels.
(Sea snake photo from Wikipeida by Craig D, CC BY-SA 2.0.)
Our third place winner is another land snake found in Australia, and
also on the island of New Guinea to the north, and on some other nearby
Indonesian islands. They are found along the east coast of Australia,
and in some of the semi-arid and forested areas in northern and
northeastern parts of the continent.
This snake is versatile in that it can live in a variety of habitats
from semi-arid grasslands to savannah woodlands and eucalyptus forests,
although is not found in the drier deserts or in wet rainforests. They
mostly eat rodents.
Their venom rating according to subcutaneous injection LD50 is 0.053
mg/kg which is slightly less than half as powerful as the venom of the
inland taipan. It is approximately double the strength of the
next-closest snake, the coastal taipan, which as mentioned above is in
fourth place of all snakes.
Although most members of this species are brown, they can be other
colors. Some are almost black, and others can be light brown, yellow,
orange, grey, or silver. Young juveniles can have red spots on their
undersides. They are usually four to six feet (1.2 to 1.8 meters) in
length, and are often confused with another species of venomous snake
called the king brown snake, which lives in some of the same areas.
They live near some populated areas, including near many of Australia’s
largest cities. Because of this, bites and fatalities in Australia are
higher from this than any other.
Although anti-venom exists, there are specific rules to know about what
to do if someone is bitten by a venomous snake in Australia. For
treatment information, see the pressure immobilization technique on Wikipedia.
(Eastern brown snake photo from Wikipedia by Peter Woodward, and in the public domain.)
