New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage. “ Bryan Grieg Fry ‘like David Attenborough on acid‘”. “ Inland Taipan, Oxyuranus microlepidotus”. Australian Museum.īochenski, Natalie. It’s also already protected by Australian law, so unlike most other animals so far, it’s fairly covered! Just to prove I’m not fibbingīeatson, Cecilie. Do they need my help/help being avoided at all?Īlthough loss of habitat is a concern, the inland taipan isn’t part of any conservation efforts at the moment. Probable motto: I could apparently kill you, but I don’t feel like it today. Where? Australia (where else), mainly where the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland meetĮndangered? Vulnerable overall, and considered extinct in Victoria and New South Wales. What? The most venomous snake in the world Perhaps “sensible snake” would have been a better name.
Speaking of which, the males have a strict no-biting policy when fighting over a female, and wrestle each other instead. Either that, or it needs a break from its marathon mating sessions. And if the prey drops too low, the inland taipan just won’t breed as much. I’ve milked the venom enough now, so what about the snake itself? Well, it has a seasonal wardrobe to cope with the desert heat – lighter in summer and darker in winter – and enjoys hunting rats, which can reach plague-like proportions on its home turf. One of the 9 unfortunate owners was reptile-loving Youtuber Nathan Chetcuti, who took weeks to recover. Requiring the highest possible reptile licence to own one indicates a slight drop in the levels of crazy, but only slight. You can keep the world’s most venomous snake in a tank in your bedroom. The others were caused by keepers handling specimens in zoos, or pets.
What’s more, of the 11 documented bites, only 2 have been due to brushing up against them in the wild, and one victim was John Robinson, a friend of “Barefoot Bushman” Rob Bredl, who somehow survived without anti-venom but suffered heart and muscle damage. If you’re still not convinced, don’t worry, because the inland taipan mainly lives in remote desert hellscape areas. Bryan Fry, for example – lovingly described as “David Attenborough on acid” – believes the muscle relaxant properties of the venom could be used to increase blood flow. It might also be key to a new treatment for congenital heart disease. Suffocation, convulsions and paralysis are just some of the delights of the worst possible snake bite. It also causes something deeply unpleasant called rhabdomyolysis, but I’ll leave you to look that up yourself lest you spit coffee all over your screen. Depending on the severity and number of bites, you could be seeing the pearly gates within 45 minutes.īefore you grab any sticks and torches, remember that this animal spends its time not killing hundreds of people. It’s like comparing a vicious dog and a nuclear power plant: the former is a more common threat, but set off the normally docile latter and you can be irreversibly screwed in minutes. I say venomous rather than deadly, because unlike the Asian saw-scale viper, which lives nearer humans and kills about 5,000 people a year, the inland taipan has racked up precisely zero kills due to its shyness, chilled demeanour, and a readily available anti-venom.
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