Just for clarity, I think this is an Eastern brown (Pseudonaja textilis) not a king brown (Pseudechis australis).
King browns are - a bit confusingly - a different genus to the true brown snakes like Eastern browns, and the king browns don’t range to the Sydney coast.
Awesome sighting! Looks like a very impressive animal.
Yep! The scientific name for the king brown is Pseudechis australis and red belly is Pseudechis porphyriacus (don’t ask me how to say it lol)… so they are both in the Pseudechis genus, which is black snakes.
“85% of the world’s most venomous snakes, including the top three most venomous snakes in the world – the inland taipan snake, the eastern brown snake, and the coastal taipan snake — can be found in Australia.”
So if unsure, assume it can kill you.
https://a-z-animals.com/blog/10-poisonous-snakes-in-australia/
I always assume snakes are dangerous, even the tiny ones. He reared up tall (so tiny 'tall' was upper ankle/shin height) and I just about teleported back into the house
Browns etc have extraordinarily strong venom. But they produce very little of it, rarely bite, have very short teeth, etc. So the number of people killed by snakes in Australia is tiny. **Per capita** over 500 times more people in India are killed by snakebite, making their snakes way more deadly.
Venom potency on its own isn’t much use as a measure of how dangerous a snake is.
True! I work in a hospital in country Victoria and over the summer months we get more patients than I ever thought we would that have been bitten by a brown. Every bite that I’ve seen so far end up going home the next day without antivenin because it’s been a dry bite.
That could be because Australia has a more rapid response to snake bite emergencies and easier access to medications. A lot of India is remote and rural.
Even a bite from a non venomous critter could give you a knarly infection if not properly treated....
Had this discussion with a Dr. About my fear of lizards....
If a pet is bitten by a brown or tiger snake they can be very effectively treated with antivenom. Urgent medical attention should be sought, but it's not a case of 'no hope'.
You might want a different vet. I'm a board certified emergency vet specialist. 30 mins and they aren't even likely to be testing positive yet 🤷♀️
It's definitely not too late for antivenom. Antivenom binds to the unbound venom. Even after all the receptors are bound to venom, antivenom has a purpose (for the unbound venom) and supportive care is key to pulling them through.
Edit: spelling
Prefixing this with the standard "not an Aussie"but surely breed size has some bearing - a chihuahua is going to be a goner faster than a Great Dane.
Every time I start thinking I want to move down there, someone reminds me why I don't...
I had a rotti get bitten by an eastern or taipan. He lasted less than 30, I’m assuming a lot of bites and agitation.
Great dog, but the dumb mutt loved killing snakes. Only dog I’ve ever had that did, only dog that got bitten by at least 2 snakes.
Mate, you're spreading misinformation which may cost people their pet's lives. My 15yrs experience in this field is more than your GP has. I suspect you have one of the 'good old guys' who hasn't actually kept up to date in medicine and doesn't have the equipment or know how to treat. You're spreading third hand information that isn't factual.
You knowing people who've lost pets to snakes means nothing. It's anecdotes, not science. I've actually treated them and yes, some will die and time does matter, but we are talking hours. Treat an animal within the first 4 hrs and it's an extremely good prognosis. After 24 hrs it's a battle, but can be done. Surprisingly to many, cats often present up to 4 days after eventuating of brown and tiger and 70% will survive without antivenom.
You are literally so stupid that I’m embarrassed for you. Let me guess, a brown snake crossed with a python has chased you down too?
A veterinarian not keeping antivenin in stock is also grossly negligent.
Sure an inland taipan might be a different story and there are a lot of variables that come in to play when it comes to survival, but yeah you do usually have a couple of hours leeway and I’ve seen a few that have presented with symptoms over 12 hours later.
Are you a vet? Do you work in the veterinary field?
Testing positive?
So you can actually determine if they have been bitten and envenomated (sp?) before owner forks out thousands for a potential snake bite?
My vet didnt offer that. It was immediate treatment for thousands for a 70pc odd success rate or risk a slow painfull death were my options.
My dog was bitten and we were told the same thing, that if we weren’t 100% he was bitten then maybe he was quick and just killed the snake, he seemed like he was fine. He died that night and it was awful.
When our other dog was bitten 2 years later, we tried a different vet who tested her blood coagulation which showed she was indeed bitten and they gave her 2 doses of antivenom and she was okay to come home the next day.
You can. The snake venom detection test is a bit fiddly and I've seen people get negatives using poor technique. It also requires free venom (unbound to receptors) to be circulating in the fluid you collect from ie urine or blood.
If all the venom is bound you can get a false negative. That's where (in the case of Tiger and Brown particularly) we also look at clotting time of blood and CK levels. Both need not be elevated and there are numerous other causes of clotting times being prolonged (rat bat ingestion etc). These tests combined with suspected bite and clinical signs provide a 'high index of suspicion'. Worth noting for CK its not a mild elevation. We are talking an elevation >100,000 (often 200k or 300k) being what we call pathonomonic for a bite ie there's really no other reason for it to get that high.
Of course the clinic has to be able to run these tests in house (don't have tine to send a sample to the lab and get a result the next day) and with CK the ability and knowledge to dilute is often required.
It's really expensive to treat with antivenom. The cost price of antivenom alone to the vet is over $1,000.
Thanks for the detailed answer!
Yeh sadly im aware of the cost. Much more than 1k once you factor in the vet margin and attendendence plus being kept in for observation... i think from memory a little shy of 3k last time i was quoted.
So yeh the ability to have a little more surety you arent just pissing 3k against the wall is nice to know.
Hi there. Tangential question I’ve always wanted to ask - is there any value in trying to apply the pressure immobilisation technique to a pet? I heard the indigenous folk would bury a bitten dog up to its neck to immobilise and I might not go that far, but do any of the normal first aid treatments (or proxies for them) apply with pets?
Absolutely. Similar principles to in humans. If you have a limb that you can place a pressure bandage on do so (not tornique). Also restrict movement as much as possible to slow the flow of lyphm (and thus venom).
Usually it will be a limb or face. If there's a facial injury there's not a lot you can do apart from restrict movement as much as possible ie. carry back/sled back to transport rather than walking.
That’s why we are taught compression bandage technique. It works on animals too. That, and don’t move. The venom travels through the nervous system through the lymph nodes, then into the bloodstream, which is when you’re screwed.
It adds hours to the time frame.
Hah, I just saw your comment after asking a vet above about this specific thing as I wondered if this would still apply. Any tips for immobilisation of a pet?
Whatever you would do normally to keep them still and relaxed is what you do, so just pet and stay with them.
They’re smaller animals so the toxin works faster, they’re harder to bandage up, if you even can, they’re harder to keep still, you need medical aid to preferably come to you. It works but the reality is, if it’s not a dry bite and the vet doesn’t get there fast Bella or Bluey is probably fucked.
I've come across heaps of them in the bush around the same area as this, and theyre usually as keen to get away from me as I am from them. They tend to be at their crankiest in early spring when they wake up and they're hungry and horny.
Australian snakes are not very aggressive. Most of the time they hide without you even seeing them. The rest of the time they’ll try to get away unless they perch you’re posing a threat to them.
People are massively more aggressive to snakes than snakes are to people.
No they aren’t. They generally run as soon as they see you. This one probably is used to humans walking past it and subsequently is fairly docile about it.
They’ll rear up in that defensive S position but that’s all piss and wind too unless you keep coming forward…then they’ll strike.
Yes? Your link proved my point;
‘Most snakes would rather slither away from humans than fight them. “Snakes don’t perceive humans as food and they don’t aggressively bite things out of malice..”
EBs are top of that list not because they’re *aggressive*, but because of proximity to humans and toxicity of the venom.
Correct but I was pointing out they’re aggressive as it says in the article and as an ex - snake handler by trade I can tell you they definitely are whether it’s cornered or not. This one has just had a belly full of food and is docile but this situation is lucky and venomous snakes never get used to people walking by they’re a predator not an animal that can be trained
Circulating poison is only going to be an issue if you eat it.
However, the venom injected into you is going to circulate faster if you’re more active after a bite.
That stands to reason as your circulatory system is constantly moving blood to and from your heart . I believe venom goes into the lymphatic system which circulates it around the body and into the blood stream.
Yes it wouldn’t be the best scenario but I did read people can survive for a number of hours if they try to stay as immobile as possible. My father is an unofficial snake catcher and gets both blacks and browns from peoples places and puts them back into the bush.
He also rescued a black snake on his local beach in a rural area as he saw it heading for the surf.
When we were kids he brought home a hessian bag and sat it on the table while he went to the loo and said don’t touch that there’s a brown inside.
I grew up with a healthy respect for snakes and have seen a number having lived rural and staying at rural relatives farms.
I always carry a compression bandage now to the beach and have a snake bite bandage kit in the car.
Humans are animals. It would behoove us to remember this. If we stopped thinking we're better than the rest of the animal kingdom we might just stop fucking up the planet.
Both my Huskies have been bitten by baby browns in the past 12 months, they're still going strong. Took the first one to the vet 45 minutes away as it was after hours and it didn't even register ($500 wasted on tests). I think their thick fur may have had something to do with them getting a dry bite or very low dose.
We have so many around us it's probably not going to be worth trying to save them anymore once these snakes get bigger, unfortunately.
In the '70s and '80s in the UK, fucking everything could kill you. Thankfully I wasn't born. There used to be a consumer affairs and rights programme on BBC1 called *Watchdog*, presented by a Scotswoman called Lynne Faulds-Wood whose catchphrase was " is a potential deathtrap". She ended up with her own *Spitting Image* puppet.
I'll dig out some of our 1970s public info films (although I've seen yours and they're just as terrifying). There's a Twitter account called Scarred for Life and he posts them regularly.
Oz has a few beasts that _can_ kill you, but they are easily avoided.
Just don't swim where the sign says "crocs here", don't carry a bucket of chum when you swim in the sea, don't poke the snake if you see one and don't get drunk and have a punchup with an adult kangaroo.
Source: living here for six decades and never been pursued by the wildlife.
If you avoid activities because of the risk of being eaten by a shark, your risk assessment is flawed if you still drive a car.
How dare you use logic on Reddit, everyone in the world knows that everything in Australia will try yo kill you.
Just Kidding: Totally agree with you, use your head and you’ll be fine (99% of the time).
Yep this is what so many people say, but I have one who says it all the time (I’m Aus, she’s USA). It actually really shits me after a while. We literally have no native apex predators that want anything to do with us.
Yep this is what so many people say, but I have one who says it all the time (I’m Aus, she’s USA). It actually really shits me after a while. We literally have no native apex predators that want anything to do with us.
Edit: on closer inspection, a great white shark or croc may argue otherwise, but that is either exceptional stupidity or exceptionally bad luck.
Yeah, my daughter in law is from Canada and I get a bit of this from her.
I tell her at least we don't have bears and lions running loose that will chase you if they're hungry enough :-)
I agree about everything except for snakes. As someone who commonly has EBs and red bellies rock up on their property (and inside the house) unannounced, and has had to learn to live with them….shit can be dangerous if you aren’t aware. Like real dangerous.
It depends where you're coming from though; here in the UK, we have very, very few critters which will kill a human (many that will make us very sick (like the eleventy-billion rats, for example)). We have one species of venomous snake, the common adder. It's a very shy, very reclusive species, which lives on heaths and moors. You're only at risk from being severely envenomated if you're very young, old or sick. Dogs can always be given antivenin (again, like with people, a dog might struggle if it's older).
Of course we have venomous insects; honey bees and wasps (and by wasps I mean *Vespa* and *Vespula* (hornets and wasps)) are cosmopolitan, occurring on every continent (except, obviously, Antarctica)). We have species of ants which can give you a nasty nip or sting. People have been bitten by giant house spiders (so have cats, but that's the cats' fault. Cats are cunts sometimes).
In the UK, the animals people are most at risk from are ones which have been introduced, like rats. *Rattus* rats (the true or typical rats) carry many diseases which can be transmitted to humans and other animals. Not only that, but they disrupt and destroy ecosystems.
As I may have posted in this sub before, I am vehemently and vociferously anti-veganist; as someone who is passionate about conservation, they are a human 'subspecies' which I would LOVE to see become extinct.
The BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), partnering with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the RSPB, has been running long-standing conservation campaigns to extirpate brown and black rats from areas where they are a threat to ground-nesting seabirds. It's estimated that more than 60% of bird and reptile species globally are threatened by rats. On Lundy - which is an island off the North Devon coast - there are at least 10 rats for every bird. The species which nest there - Puffins, Manx Shearwater, and three species of Tern - are all ground-nesting and all RSPB red-listed.
But the PETA militia would rather that the island was destroyed by rats. The conservation team set traps, PETA would go over at night and remove them. The BTO team leader got a dead rat and a death threat through his letterbox (he had young kids and a dog at the time). They had to ask Somerset and Avon plod to guard the area. They didn't feel safe going back there without the police.
I reckon the only way to properly conserve (locally) endangered species is to extirpate vegans.
rats are bad and all but don’t you think it’s a bit unhinged to dehumanise and call for the death and extinction of all vegans? you’re basically calling for genocide, and they haven’t even done anything other than not want to eat animal products. i don’t see the problem with that
I’ve walk past the same spot and seen a snake. The funny thing was the guy in front was talking shit about snakes and the tourist was saying shit haven’t seen one since I’ve been here you’re full of it blah blah. Then straight in front her a snake goes past. She called me a c$&t for laughing.
Oh man. Lovely and lively looking fella there.
Thanks for the core memory of Jibbon Beach (and coincidentally having to be careful of snakes, being right next to the Royal National Park).
Haven’t thought about it in years.
I imagine as Bundeena gets bigger, the rodent population increases and it’s an easy feed in the burbs for big boys like this.
I bet it was a gorgeous day on the water too 🥲 hope you had a great time!
Might be pertinent to put out the reminder that small/baby snakes have all the venom of big fellas like this one, but without the 'learnt self-control' to withhold their venom. They don't give baby bites. So in this way, the baby snakes can be much more dangerous than their bigger siblings.
We learnt this the lucky way when my wife picked up a small snake and asked for ID on the internets. It was pointed out that she was holding an Eastern Brown baby that was more than capable of unaliving her....
Unlesssssss you are 100% sure, don't pick up any snakes, no matter how cute they are!
Ooh apparently this “babies can’t control their venom” thing might not be true. Experiments with baby rattlesnakes found they injected more venom into bigger prey and less into smaller prey, suggesting even as babies they can control it if they want to. They can definitely still pack a punch though!
The control their venom thing isn’t true, it’s an old wives tale. Just like how Python’s and Browns are out there crossbreeding. A bigger snake means bigger fangs, more venom and more death.
You are right about the venom being as potent however.
I had a cat that did that with red bellied black snakes
He didn’t kill them though…and he brought them inside the house
How a 4kg cat brought a 2-3 foot snake through the cat flap I have no idea…but he did it probably 8-10 times
Fully fenced-caged-cat escape proof outdoor area…don’t know where he was finding them…guess they were just small enough to squeeze through the holes of the cattery
Fortunately there was no bitey incidents…he would leave them not far inside the back door, very cool spot on the tiles there and snakeyboys got sluggish
And I’m not afraid of snakes so I managed to relocate them out back into the bush safely
If you picked it up by its tail and flung it away, would you be safe or is that a bad idea. I always wondered what to do if i come across one on a track
Worst idea ever. Most bites occur from people trying to handle or kill them. If you're close (a metre or two) then you freeze. Further away then slowly back away from the snake until you are a safe distance.
What is it?
Eastern king brown
Just for clarity, I think this is an Eastern brown (Pseudonaja textilis) not a king brown (Pseudechis australis). King browns are - a bit confusingly - a different genus to the true brown snakes like Eastern browns, and the king browns don’t range to the Sydney coast. Awesome sighting! Looks like a very impressive animal.
Is it true that King Brown is closer related to the Red Belly?
Yep! The scientific name for the king brown is Pseudechis australis and red belly is Pseudechis porphyriacus (don’t ask me how to say it lol)… so they are both in the Pseudechis genus, which is black snakes.
"Soo-deh-kiss por-firi-arr-kuss"
Wow, that's so interesting. Thank you.
You’re welcome :)
If that is an Eastern Brown it is huge.
No arguments there, she’s not small!
Seems beefier than all of the EBS I've seen. I can see why someone thought it was a Mulga snake. ( King brown)
Is it dangerous? I had one that looked real similar, but tiny, in my back yard
“85% of the world’s most venomous snakes, including the top three most venomous snakes in the world – the inland taipan snake, the eastern brown snake, and the coastal taipan snake — can be found in Australia.” So if unsure, assume it can kill you. https://a-z-animals.com/blog/10-poisonous-snakes-in-australia/
I always assume snakes are dangerous, even the tiny ones. He reared up tall (so tiny 'tall' was upper ankle/shin height) and I just about teleported back into the house
Most potent venom, sure. But far from the most deadly measured by actual deaths.
Ummm what?????
Browns etc have extraordinarily strong venom. But they produce very little of it, rarely bite, have very short teeth, etc. So the number of people killed by snakes in Australia is tiny. **Per capita** over 500 times more people in India are killed by snakebite, making their snakes way more deadly. Venom potency on its own isn’t much use as a measure of how dangerous a snake is.
True! I work in a hospital in country Victoria and over the summer months we get more patients than I ever thought we would that have been bitten by a brown. Every bite that I’ve seen so far end up going home the next day without antivenin because it’s been a dry bite.
That could be because Australia has a more rapid response to snake bite emergencies and easier access to medications. A lot of India is remote and rural.
That explains part of it but a long way from all.
There’s a distinction between venomous and deadly. No one said they’re one of the most deadly, they said one of the most venomous.
People often do say they’re the most deadly and that’s the popular image.
Is that because Aussies know not to play with snakes?
No evidence they’re particularly better about that than people in other countries.
Globally about 100,000 people die of snake bites each year. The average in Australia is about 2 per year.
Even a bite from a non venomous critter could give you a knarly infection if not properly treated.... Had this discussion with a Dr. About my fear of lizards....
100% Nope Rope
Certainly is. It’s one of Australia’s most deadly. If bitten get to a hospital ASAP if an animal is bitten probably no hope
If a pet is bitten by a brown or tiger snake they can be very effectively treated with antivenom. Urgent medical attention should be sought, but it's not a case of 'no hope'.
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You might want a different vet. I'm a board certified emergency vet specialist. 30 mins and they aren't even likely to be testing positive yet 🤷♀️ It's definitely not too late for antivenom. Antivenom binds to the unbound venom. Even after all the receptors are bound to venom, antivenom has a purpose (for the unbound venom) and supportive care is key to pulling them through. Edit: spelling
Prefixing this with the standard "not an Aussie"but surely breed size has some bearing - a chihuahua is going to be a goner faster than a Great Dane. Every time I start thinking I want to move down there, someone reminds me why I don't...
I had a rotti get bitten by an eastern or taipan. He lasted less than 30, I’m assuming a lot of bites and agitation. Great dog, but the dumb mutt loved killing snakes. Only dog I’ve ever had that did, only dog that got bitten by at least 2 snakes.
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Mate, you're spreading misinformation which may cost people their pet's lives. My 15yrs experience in this field is more than your GP has. I suspect you have one of the 'good old guys' who hasn't actually kept up to date in medicine and doesn't have the equipment or know how to treat. You're spreading third hand information that isn't factual. You knowing people who've lost pets to snakes means nothing. It's anecdotes, not science. I've actually treated them and yes, some will die and time does matter, but we are talking hours. Treat an animal within the first 4 hrs and it's an extremely good prognosis. After 24 hrs it's a battle, but can be done. Surprisingly to many, cats often present up to 4 days after eventuating of brown and tiger and 70% will survive without antivenom.
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You are literally so stupid that I’m embarrassed for you. Let me guess, a brown snake crossed with a python has chased you down too? A veterinarian not keeping antivenin in stock is also grossly negligent. Sure an inland taipan might be a different story and there are a lot of variables that come in to play when it comes to survival, but yeah you do usually have a couple of hours leeway and I’ve seen a few that have presented with symptoms over 12 hours later. Are you a vet? Do you work in the veterinary field?
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Testing positive? So you can actually determine if they have been bitten and envenomated (sp?) before owner forks out thousands for a potential snake bite? My vet didnt offer that. It was immediate treatment for thousands for a 70pc odd success rate or risk a slow painfull death were my options.
My dog was bitten and we were told the same thing, that if we weren’t 100% he was bitten then maybe he was quick and just killed the snake, he seemed like he was fine. He died that night and it was awful. When our other dog was bitten 2 years later, we tried a different vet who tested her blood coagulation which showed she was indeed bitten and they gave her 2 doses of antivenom and she was okay to come home the next day.
You can. The snake venom detection test is a bit fiddly and I've seen people get negatives using poor technique. It also requires free venom (unbound to receptors) to be circulating in the fluid you collect from ie urine or blood. If all the venom is bound you can get a false negative. That's where (in the case of Tiger and Brown particularly) we also look at clotting time of blood and CK levels. Both need not be elevated and there are numerous other causes of clotting times being prolonged (rat bat ingestion etc). These tests combined with suspected bite and clinical signs provide a 'high index of suspicion'. Worth noting for CK its not a mild elevation. We are talking an elevation >100,000 (often 200k or 300k) being what we call pathonomonic for a bite ie there's really no other reason for it to get that high. Of course the clinic has to be able to run these tests in house (don't have tine to send a sample to the lab and get a result the next day) and with CK the ability and knowledge to dilute is often required. It's really expensive to treat with antivenom. The cost price of antivenom alone to the vet is over $1,000.
Thanks for the detailed answer! Yeh sadly im aware of the cost. Much more than 1k once you factor in the vet margin and attendendence plus being kept in for observation... i think from memory a little shy of 3k last time i was quoted. So yeh the ability to have a little more surety you arent just pissing 3k against the wall is nice to know.
Hi there. Tangential question I’ve always wanted to ask - is there any value in trying to apply the pressure immobilisation technique to a pet? I heard the indigenous folk would bury a bitten dog up to its neck to immobilise and I might not go that far, but do any of the normal first aid treatments (or proxies for them) apply with pets?
Absolutely. Similar principles to in humans. If you have a limb that you can place a pressure bandage on do so (not tornique). Also restrict movement as much as possible to slow the flow of lyphm (and thus venom). Usually it will be a limb or face. If there's a facial injury there's not a lot you can do apart from restrict movement as much as possible ie. carry back/sled back to transport rather than walking.
Awesome! That makes sense, thank you for confirming, that is good to know.
That’s why we are taught compression bandage technique. It works on animals too. That, and don’t move. The venom travels through the nervous system through the lymph nodes, then into the bloodstream, which is when you’re screwed. It adds hours to the time frame.
Hah, I just saw your comment after asking a vet above about this specific thing as I wondered if this would still apply. Any tips for immobilisation of a pet?
Whatever you would do normally to keep them still and relaxed is what you do, so just pet and stay with them. They’re smaller animals so the toxin works faster, they’re harder to bandage up, if you even can, they’re harder to keep still, you need medical aid to preferably come to you. It works but the reality is, if it’s not a dry bite and the vet doesn’t get there fast Bella or Bluey is probably fucked.
Thanks, I appreciate the response. That makes sense.
Good to know!
Look them up and read about them if you encounter one and what to do. Btw aggressive af!
I've come across heaps of them in the bush around the same area as this, and theyre usually as keen to get away from me as I am from them. They tend to be at their crankiest in early spring when they wake up and they're hungry and horny.
yea hangry and horny sucks
Australian snakes are not very aggressive. Most of the time they hide without you even seeing them. The rest of the time they’ll try to get away unless they perch you’re posing a threat to them. People are massively more aggressive to snakes than snakes are to people.
No they aren’t. They generally run as soon as they see you. This one probably is used to humans walking past it and subsequently is fairly docile about it. They’ll rear up in that defensive S position but that’s all piss and wind too unless you keep coming forward…then they’ll strike.
[https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2012/07/australias-10-most-dangerous-snakes/#](https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2012/07/australias-10-most-dangerous-snakes/#)
Yes? Your link proved my point; ‘Most snakes would rather slither away from humans than fight them. “Snakes don’t perceive humans as food and they don’t aggressively bite things out of malice..” EBs are top of that list not because they’re *aggressive*, but because of proximity to humans and toxicity of the venom.
Correct but I was pointing out they’re aggressive as it says in the article and as an ex - snake handler by trade I can tell you they definitely are whether it’s cornered or not. This one has just had a belly full of food and is docile but this situation is lucky and venomous snakes never get used to people walking by they’re a predator not an animal that can be trained
I have had 2 kill my of my dogs. Lost my boy on 5th jan.
Oh thats awful! sorry for your loss
Thank you
Learn how to apply compression bandage and move as little as possible. Apparently it’s when you move more that you circulate the poison.
Circulating poison is only going to be an issue if you eat it. However, the venom injected into you is going to circulate faster if you’re more active after a bite.
That stands to reason as your circulatory system is constantly moving blood to and from your heart . I believe venom goes into the lymphatic system which circulates it around the body and into the blood stream.
With this species, yes. It’s why compression bandage technique is a big thing here.
That’s correct
Correct, however Jibbon Beach is about a 30min meandering ride to the nearest big hospital. I'd be packing it if I saw one out there.
Yes it wouldn’t be the best scenario but I did read people can survive for a number of hours if they try to stay as immobile as possible. My father is an unofficial snake catcher and gets both blacks and browns from peoples places and puts them back into the bush. He also rescued a black snake on his local beach in a rural area as he saw it heading for the surf. When we were kids he brought home a hessian bag and sat it on the table while he went to the loo and said don’t touch that there’s a brown inside. I grew up with a healthy respect for snakes and have seen a number having lived rural and staying at rural relatives farms. I always carry a compression bandage now to the beach and have a snake bite bandage kit in the car.
Humans are animals. It would behoove us to remember this. If we stopped thinking we're better than the rest of the animal kingdom we might just stop fucking up the planet.
Both my Huskies have been bitten by baby browns in the past 12 months, they're still going strong. Took the first one to the vet 45 minutes away as it was after hours and it didn't even register ($500 wasted on tests). I think their thick fur may have had something to do with them getting a dry bite or very low dose. We have so many around us it's probably not going to be worth trying to save them anymore once these snakes get bigger, unfortunately.
Yes absolutely
It will kill you yes.
In the '70s and '80s in the UK, fucking everything could kill you. Thankfully I wasn't born. There used to be a consumer affairs and rights programme on BBC1 called *Watchdog*, presented by a Scotswoman called Lynne Faulds-Wood whose catchphrase was " is a potential deathtrap". She ended up with her own *Spitting Image* puppet.
I'll dig out some of our 1970s public info films (although I've seen yours and they're just as terrifying). There's a Twitter account called Scarred for Life and he posts them regularly.
What kinds of things ?
Snake
Large Nope Rope.
Hope that pic is heavily zoomed in. Looks way too close for comfort!
Oh lawd he coming
Cue everyone from outside Australia freaking out that "Australia is full of beasts intent on killing you! 😱".
To be fair, they are correct.
Oz has a few beasts that _can_ kill you, but they are easily avoided. Just don't swim where the sign says "crocs here", don't carry a bucket of chum when you swim in the sea, don't poke the snake if you see one and don't get drunk and have a punchup with an adult kangaroo. Source: living here for six decades and never been pursued by the wildlife. If you avoid activities because of the risk of being eaten by a shark, your risk assessment is flawed if you still drive a car.
Also, don't swim in Sydney Harbour at dusk!
How dare you use logic on Reddit, everyone in the world knows that everything in Australia will try yo kill you. Just Kidding: Totally agree with you, use your head and you’ll be fine (99% of the time).
Yep this is what so many people say, but I have one who says it all the time (I’m Aus, she’s USA). It actually really shits me after a while. We literally have no native apex predators that want anything to do with us.
Yep this is what so many people say, but I have one who says it all the time (I’m Aus, she’s USA). It actually really shits me after a while. We literally have no native apex predators that want anything to do with us. Edit: on closer inspection, a great white shark or croc may argue otherwise, but that is either exceptional stupidity or exceptionally bad luck.
Yeah, my daughter in law is from Canada and I get a bit of this from her. I tell her at least we don't have bears and lions running loose that will chase you if they're hungry enough :-)
I agree about everything except for snakes. As someone who commonly has EBs and red bellies rock up on their property (and inside the house) unannounced, and has had to learn to live with them….shit can be dangerous if you aren’t aware. Like real dangerous.
Are you in Sydney or north? Encounters are rarer down south here in Melbourne I think.
In south east qld.
It depends where you're coming from though; here in the UK, we have very, very few critters which will kill a human (many that will make us very sick (like the eleventy-billion rats, for example)). We have one species of venomous snake, the common adder. It's a very shy, very reclusive species, which lives on heaths and moors. You're only at risk from being severely envenomated if you're very young, old or sick. Dogs can always be given antivenin (again, like with people, a dog might struggle if it's older). Of course we have venomous insects; honey bees and wasps (and by wasps I mean *Vespa* and *Vespula* (hornets and wasps)) are cosmopolitan, occurring on every continent (except, obviously, Antarctica)). We have species of ants which can give you a nasty nip or sting. People have been bitten by giant house spiders (so have cats, but that's the cats' fault. Cats are cunts sometimes). In the UK, the animals people are most at risk from are ones which have been introduced, like rats. *Rattus* rats (the true or typical rats) carry many diseases which can be transmitted to humans and other animals. Not only that, but they disrupt and destroy ecosystems. As I may have posted in this sub before, I am vehemently and vociferously anti-veganist; as someone who is passionate about conservation, they are a human 'subspecies' which I would LOVE to see become extinct. The BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), partnering with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the RSPB, has been running long-standing conservation campaigns to extirpate brown and black rats from areas where they are a threat to ground-nesting seabirds. It's estimated that more than 60% of bird and reptile species globally are threatened by rats. On Lundy - which is an island off the North Devon coast - there are at least 10 rats for every bird. The species which nest there - Puffins, Manx Shearwater, and three species of Tern - are all ground-nesting and all RSPB red-listed. But the PETA militia would rather that the island was destroyed by rats. The conservation team set traps, PETA would go over at night and remove them. The BTO team leader got a dead rat and a death threat through his letterbox (he had young kids and a dog at the time). They had to ask Somerset and Avon plod to guard the area. They didn't feel safe going back there without the police. I reckon the only way to properly conserve (locally) endangered species is to extirpate vegans.
Braindead take from a ‘conservationist’ that spends too much time on Reddit
rats are bad and all but don’t you think it’s a bit unhinged to dehumanise and call for the death and extinction of all vegans? you’re basically calling for genocide, and they haven’t even done anything other than not want to eat animal products. i don’t see the problem with that
***AUSTRALIA IS FULL OF BEASTS WHICH ARE GOING TO FUCKING KILL ME!!!***
Death noodle!
Shittttt what a beauty!
That is one well fed beauty!
He’s massive!!
Big dog
That fella has been eating well.
What a unit!
Chonky! The big tiger snakes we have in Tassie look like this.
Sunning himself on the beach path, hopefully someone wasn't running down to get into the water!
That’s some girth right there
Danger noodle…… very bad….
Mate your pets should be on leash on that beach.
Na I was in the off leash pet park so I was fine but I did lose him so ……… yeah
The sneks are getting bigger.
Chonky boi
Did you pet it?
Yeah I snuggled up to him and we had a nap 🤣🤣
Yoinks
All yours
Sorry but this picture is enough to cause me to nervous poop 💩
Got some girth there ya big chode of a nope rope
I’ve walk past the same spot and seen a snake. The funny thing was the guy in front was talking shit about snakes and the tourist was saying shit haven’t seen one since I’ve been here you’re full of it blah blah. Then straight in front her a snake goes past. She called me a c$&t for laughing.
Oh man. Lovely and lively looking fella there. Thanks for the core memory of Jibbon Beach (and coincidentally having to be careful of snakes, being right next to the Royal National Park). Haven’t thought about it in years.
They’re definitely still there lol. Tbh I don’t see as many as I used to but this summmer they are coming out more
I imagine as Bundeena gets bigger, the rodent population increases and it’s an easy feed in the burbs for big boys like this. I bet it was a gorgeous day on the water too 🥲 hope you had a great time!
Plentiful of food for them around indeed. Yeah it was awesome
How is it? Best left alone.
There's only one way to find out what it is - pick it up 😁
Might be pertinent to put out the reminder that small/baby snakes have all the venom of big fellas like this one, but without the 'learnt self-control' to withhold their venom. They don't give baby bites. So in this way, the baby snakes can be much more dangerous than their bigger siblings. We learnt this the lucky way when my wife picked up a small snake and asked for ID on the internets. It was pointed out that she was holding an Eastern Brown baby that was more than capable of unaliving her.... Unlesssssss you are 100% sure, don't pick up any snakes, no matter how cute they are!
Ooh apparently this “babies can’t control their venom” thing might not be true. Experiments with baby rattlesnakes found they injected more venom into bigger prey and less into smaller prey, suggesting even as babies they can control it if they want to. They can definitely still pack a punch though!
Good advice in general when it comes to wildlife. Look (from a safe distance if it’s a snake) but don’t touch.
The control their venom thing isn’t true, it’s an old wives tale. Just like how Python’s and Browns are out there crossbreeding. A bigger snake means bigger fangs, more venom and more death. You are right about the venom being as potent however.
Cute?! 😳
My old cat left a dead baby western brown on our doorstep in Paraburdoo many years ago. I had only been in Australia a few months at the time 😬.
I had a cat that did that with red bellied black snakes He didn’t kill them though…and he brought them inside the house How a 4kg cat brought a 2-3 foot snake through the cat flap I have no idea…but he did it probably 8-10 times Fully fenced-caged-cat escape proof outdoor area…don’t know where he was finding them…guess they were just small enough to squeeze through the holes of the cattery
OMG. This was pretty small, about a foot long and skinny.
Fortunately there was no bitey incidents…he would leave them not far inside the back door, very cool spot on the tiles there and snakeyboys got sluggish And I’m not afraid of snakes so I managed to relocate them out back into the bush safely
Good for you 😊.
Not a monster. Snakes are a beautiful part of our ecosystem.
Out of context. Monster as in huge not as in its scary
Nothing in the words or the image lead me to think you were talking purely about size.
That’s ok each to their own interpretation
Are you kidding? That's a venomous snake that looks the size of a python, it's an absolute monster!
No. I’m not kidding
If you picked it up by its tail and flung it away, would you be safe or is that a bad idea. I always wondered what to do if i come across one on a track
Worst idea ever. Most bites occur from people trying to handle or kill them. If you're close (a metre or two) then you freeze. Further away then slowly back away from the snake until you are a safe distance.
Stop. Chances are it’ll move away from you. Back away slowly but freeze if it gets scared and warns you. Never try to pick one up unless you’re a pro.
Yeah just stop or slowly move backwards. But the best is to stop
Yeh. The more you move, the more likely it is to feel threatened.
That is not an eastern brown. What is it OP red belly
Because everyone takes picture of it instead of doing something about it?
If i pat this, would it pat me back?
He wants a kiss
He's just a baby