wdebr3I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Boron Zone. It has a range of scientists studying all different topics. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
Australia lays claim to the worlds deadliest snake – the Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis). It also lays claim the worlds most venomous land snake – Inland Taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus). However Mark will no doubt be able to tell us about several sea snakes that are considered even more toxic…
So why is the Eastern Brown Snake (EBS) considered to be the most deadly? When considering how deadly a snake is, a number of different criteria need to be applied:
1) Toxicity of venom – very potent
2) Amount of venom – moderate volume
3) Fang length – relatively small
4) Disposition/Behaviour – excitable
5) Proximity to people – common across eastern and south-eastern Australia.
So for 4 of these 5 attributes the EBS scores either highly or very highly – hence the ranking as the worlds most deadly snake.
Some of the other snakes which have more potent venom do not score as highly right across the board, so while they are potentially deadly they don’t win the crown. The Inland Taipan for example have a venom which has the capacity to kill ~100,000 mice with one bite, however they are considered quite shy snake, which are reluctant to bite and inhabit remote areas.
The King Cobra is probably the largest of the venomous snakes. It primarily feeds on reptiles, particularly other snakes, and its venom is not considered as dangerous to humans as that of many other species. The are despite this a very impressive animal!
0
Great answer from James.
0
Certainly some of the sea snakes are believed to be more venomous – but it is hard to pick the absolute winner because less is know about them. The beaked sea snake and some of the kraits would certainly rank high. I think the king cobra kills the most people per year – as they are in areas with high population density (India) etc -but that could be because species id is difficult and the bites of more than one species are being attributed to the king cobra.
When I was working in Malaysia, I was sitting at an outside table at our research hut typing in data and a 2m long spitting cobra slithered right past me – less than a metre away. Needless to say I was very worried and just froze. No trying to catch that one.
1
Great detailed answer from James. I always thought Australia had 9 of the top 10 most venomous snakes!
0