Is this a Taipan

temp · Post by **temp** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 8:34 pm

Wasn't sure where to post this pic, but could anyone confirm what species of snake this is. I believe its a Taipan as i was told they had orange dots on their belly as this fella has. The dog got this one in the back yard on Thursday night, ripped it in half

Cheers
Craig

Dick · Post by **Dick** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:12 pm

G'day Temp

Sometimes its a bit hard to id snakes from just a pic. The best way to tell would to do a scale count. Do you still have the snake?

edit, just wondering if its a gwarder, usually they have an orange colouration to the underbelly scales but I've not seen it as spots, was the head a different (darker) colour to the body?

edit edit, just checked my id book. Tiapans have single anal scale. Browns including the gwarder have a divided anal scale. The anal scale is the scale where their butt hole is, the divided scale looks a bit like its two halves. Both have divided subcaudals (underneath tailscales down to the tip) and about 40 to 80.

flicker · Post by **flicker** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:54 pm

Temp, I'm with dick on this one and favour the western brown also known as a gwarder.

Taipans have a distinct coffin shaped head and a slightly skinny neck while browns have a smaller head more uniform with thier neck ,apart from king browns which have a thick neck and more rounder head.

All have or can have the orange blothes on their belly ,the divided anal scales will be the deciding factor.

Either way your dog is lucky he's still here as he's playing with one of the most deadly snakes in the world.

Cheers Flicker

temp · Post by **temp** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:17 am

Thanks for the info guys

There's basically only a skeleton left now as the ants have a had a nice feed so counting scalles is out of the question.

Either way your dog is lucky he's still here as he's playing with one of the most deadly snakes in the world.

He sure is, thats the 8th snake we've had in our backyard in the past 2 years, the last one he got was a whip snake about 5 feet long. Got me buggered how he's still standing.

Cheers
Craig

Dick · Post by **Dick** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 9:32 am

flicker wrote: Either way your dog is lucky he's still here as he's playing with one of the most deadly snakes in the world.

Cheers Flicker

From the book, venom toxicity only and does not account for amount injected or inclination of the snake to strike.

Common Cobra given the rating of 1

Rattlesnake 0.06

Taipan 7.87

Brown 12.35

Inland taipan 49.5

wonder how much higher the sea snakes rate?

Post by **Matt Flynn** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 10:36 am

The figures though don't take a lot of things into account, like the the longer term effects of the bite if you survive.

A rattlesnake bite for example might not kill you but it can make you pretty bl..dy miserable for a long time because of some of the toxins peculiar to the rattlesnake venom ***GORE WARNING*** http://www.rattlesnakebite.org/rattlesnakepics.htm

As I recall some snake toxins hit the nerves, others destroy muscle, and others hit the blood etc.

Most have a nice little combination.

I believe a component of rattlesnake venom is now used to control human blood pressure in an over-the-counter prescription medication.

Dick · Post by **Dick** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 10:55 am

Matt Flynn wrote:The figures though don't take a lot of things into account, like the the longer term effects of the bite if you survive.

Yes that's correct Matt, nor does it take into account the snakes disposition to strike, how many times it'll bite and the amount of venom it injects. Still I think it puts our snakes into perspective somewhat (keep away from the b00dy things

)

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