What is the most venomous Australian snake?
This question can be answered several ways. If we consider the question as – which snake has the most toxic venom – then our best answer is the inland or western taipan (also known as the fierce or small-scaled snake). An average bite or milking from this snake can potentially kill more laboratory mice than any other Australian snake. But this is an artificial test as this snake normally preys on the plague rat and no-one has tested its venom on that animal. Also, this snake lives far away from people in central Australia and has never been known to kill anyone (it’s actually not very fierce at all but note that it can cause a potentially life-threatening illness). An alternative question is – which snake bites and kills more people than any other? This practical approach to the ‘most dangerous snake’ leads us to the brown snakes. There are 8 species of brown snakes which, as a group, are more widespread and cause more bites and deaths from snakebite than any other group of Australian
