During our recent journey across Australia on the Indian-Pacific railroad, one of our stops was in Adelaide where we visited the magnificent South Australian Museum and were hosted for dinner by the wonderfully engaging Dr. Mark Hutchinson, ons of the world's leading experts on snakes. Over a glass of wine I asked him why some of the world's most venomous snakes produce enough venom to floor an elephant, when most of their prey are small mammals. He told me that the strength of the venom is not the deciding factor, but the speed with which it acts. Many of these snakes prey on rats and will corner their victim is a tunnel or burrow. In order to prevent a counter-attack by the cornered rodent, the snake's venom must render its victim helpless as quickly as possible. The most venomous family of snakes in Australia are the Taipans, here an excerpt from Wikipedia on their toxicity:
"Species of this genus possess highly neurotoxic venom with some other toxic constituents that have multiple effects on victims. The venom is known to paralyse the victim's nervous system and clot the blood, which then blocks blood vessels and uses up clotting factors. Members of this genus are considered to be among the most venomous land snakes based on their murine LD50, an indicator of the toxicity on mice. The inland taipan is considered to be the most venomous land snake and the coastal taipan, which is arguably the largest Australian venomous snake, is the third-most venomous land snake. The central ranges taipan has been less researched than other species of this genus, so the exact toxicity of its venom is still not clear, but it may be even more venomous than the other taipan species. Apart from venom toxicity, quantities of venom delivered should also be taken into account for the danger posed. The coastal taipan is capable of injecting a large quantity of venom due to its large size.
In 1950, Kevin Budden, an amateur herpetologist, was one of the first people to capture a taipan alive, although he was bitten in the process and died the next day. The snake, which ended up dying a few weeks later, was milked by Melbourne zoologist David Fleay and its venom used to develop an antivenom, which became available in 1955.
In his book Venom, which explores the development of a taipan antivenom in Australia in the 1940s and 1950s, author Brendan James Murray argues that only one person is known to have survived an Oxyuranus bite without antivenom: George Rosendale, a Guugu Yimithirr aborigine bitten at Hope Vale in 1949. Murray writes that Rosendale's condition was so severe that nurses later showed him extracted samples of his own blood that were completely black in colour."
2.05 Warwick Golden Taipan
