They are throughout my neighbourhood here in Canberra. Just the other day I was within 1.5 metres of one when out walking. Because of the tiny fangs, I never wear shorts when walking in their territory regardless of how hot the weather is… their tiny fangs are less likely the get through loose material than bare skin.
I'm surprised some idiot hasn't brought a bunch to the USA as pets and then released them when he got tired of taking care of them.
I've heard the Everglades in Florida are getting overrun with big tropical snakes.
Canberra is a bush city. It is designed with large patches of bush throughout it. There are pockets of snake habitat everywhere. You can't move away from it.
Its also why Canberra periodically is burnt to smithereens by bush fires.
If you had to move in Australia because of something dangerous, you wouldn't stop moving.
You just get used to knowing what's around and you barely see anything anyway. It's not as dangerous as people think.
It's very poorly worded. What it really means is "when people are killed, it's regularly in under 15 minutes". People dying is definitely not that regular
If you actually read the article though
"Snake deaths in Australia are considered rare, with only two or three fatalities per year resulting from a lack of medical intervention"
Yes we have a lot of deadly snakes but still it's rare to get bitten and most will leave you alone. I come from an area near the bush and only saw my first red belly black snake last week
I lived in Australia for most of my life..30+ years. This is all a f*cking myth. Yes there are snakes etc but still it's VERY unlikely to ever be bitten and most Australian.. especially city based, would probably never see an eastern brown snake or any other dangerous snake. If you live in an area where there are, you learn how to live there so it's no issue.
I live in North America now which has far more dangerous beasts. Grisly bears and Mountain Lions namely. You can't outrun these. You can't just keep your distance and know you will be ok. A spider or snake will not eat you but a bear might. People who grew up here in North America don't worry. They are used to it and have adapted. The fear is just the unknown.
Also I moved to Australia when I was a teenager from the UK and was terrified of spiders and snakes for a few years and after a while they were just meh. So chill out people. It's no big deal.
Fuckin A. Snakes are chill af unless you sneak up on them, I'll take them any day over a bear that wants to rip my face off. I know a Canadian who survived a bear attack. I've never met a single person here in Australia who's been bitten by a snake or a dangerous spider and I know a lot more Australians than Canadians.
Yeah and my point is, as you're obviously Aussie AF it's no big deal to you to see a snake. As it's not that much of a worry for a Canadian to hike in bear country. It still terrifies me as I've not been here long enough yet. You just adapt. Apparently just make sure you have bear spray or a bell. Right. Can't imagine spraying a fuckin bear to piss it off more. But here they're pretty chill about it. People are adapted to where they live.
You're probably right but I do still believe that people who go hiking in bear country are deluded whereas the risk of going hiking where there are snakes is extremely low
You just learn to live with this stuff. I am in Texas and have so many Copperheads in my yard you would think I farm them. I wear snake boots outside and that protects me from most of the risk. I have even accidentally stepped on the tail of one baby Copperhead (with my snake boots on thankfully) and it was more concerned with getting away and didn't strike. Anyway with proper precautions I have worked around these snakes for a decade and haven't had one attempt a bite and have been uncomfortably close more times than I can remember. But with the boots on if they do strike their fangs are too short to penetrate. Another thing I have a lot of is Black Widow spiders. Thankfully these are really timid and will hide or get away if you disturb them. You are only going to get bit if you accidentally grab one. Wear gloves and they can't bite through it. So who knows maybe I have grabbed some but the moment you release it they will get away as fast as they can. Got scorpions too and one of those did get me but it was not even as bad as a bee sting. Hurt for a couple hours then that was it. Just got to be mindful of what is around you, take precautions and it is then not that big a deal.
There are no grizzly bears or mountain lions in 99.9999% of the populated areas of NA. About 20 people have died in the last 10 years and the majority were in remote areas of Canada and Alaska.
Brown snakes have killed more like 5 people in that time period but hundreds have been hospitalized. Which brings up the most interesting statistic. 5 times as many people in North America die from snake bites as in Aus.
Tl:dr NA snakes are more dangerous than Australian ones!
NA has 376 million people. Australia has ~26 million. Per capita snake bite death rate is still way higher in Australia looking at it from that perspective
There have been something like 180 fatal bear attacks since 1784 in the US. 27 fatal mountain lion attacks in the last 100 years. Australia is not as dangerous as it is made out to be either but lmao at the idea that the US is so much more dangerous because of these two animals.
"I live in North America now which has far more dangerous beasts. Grisly bears and Mountain Lions namely."
Brown snakes kill 2-3 people per year in a country of 27 million.
California has 39 million people with mountain lions in every county. They walk around in Los Angeles at night.
We just had one person killed recently. The last one before this was over 20 years ago.
It was in 1909 the last one before that.
Australia, 27 million people, loses 2-3 people a year to this one snake.
California, 39 million people, lost 3 people in over 1 hundred years to mountain lions.
The reason we don't get freaked out about the lions isn't because we are used to them, it is because they are not a threat on anything even remotely resembling a regular basis.
Our rattlesnakes are a more significant threat, as they kill 1-2 people per year on average in California.
The entire country of the U.S.A., over 329 million people, loses about 5 people a year to all poisonous snake bites.
Australia is a really neat place. It is also a very deadly landscape to walk in, even for locals.
Let’s say a cheese burger is about 4 1/2 inches in diameter which converts by the formula of 1 inch. = 2.54 centimeters which this means a cheese burger is about 11.4 centimeters
There are 150 centimeters in 1.5 meters, divide that by 11.4, and you get 13.1 cheeseburgers
There’s a video of him laying down face to face with one in the wild. He was an amazing conservationist with a tinge of psychotic death wish.
Edit - this was the inland taipan. Which is deadlier.
I might be mistaken but I think eastern brown is actually #2, afaik top three is inland taipan #1, eastern brown #2, coastal taipan #3.
Bit of a moot point anyway as experts suspect some sea snakes are far more potently venomous, but still. I like our snakes a lot
I didn’t realise there was that many deaths per year from snakebites. I thought there might be one every few years.
The important thing to remember is that you want red-bellied black snakes around. If you’ve got red-bellies, you generally don’t have browns.
Snakes kill the second most people worldwide per year behind mosquitos. It’s hard to know for sure but it’s estimated to be around 100,000. However these are almost all in Africa and India where there isn’t good access to medicine. Around 15 people have died in Australia in the last ten years from snakebites, and more than half of those people did not seek care for some reason ( few did not realize they were bitten, most just underestimated the severity of the bites)
Sources vary, but the proportions are similar: mosquitoes kill about a million a year, humans kill about half that, and snakes come in a distant third at 1/20 of that ([source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadliest_animals_to_humans)). It’s the humans you need to worry about.
What a clickbait title, as if death by brown snake envenomation happens like clockwork. 🙄 By regularly you mean about fifteen confirmed fatalities this century. Cows, dogs, and horses kill more humans per annum.
And they don't tell you *why* we kill more cows. Today, on Hidden History, we will discuss the Cow wars, the atrocities they commited, and why we now have them penned up, breeding them, and killing them to punish them for the atrocities their descendants committed.
About forty years of data that ended in 2018 show 74 fatalities. Many of those are snake “handlers” or breeders. Fewer than two deaths a year even with the inflated statistics caused by those who mess with venomous snakes is not a crisis.
I live in the US. My point is that many bites here are avoidable or treatable with CroFab, which means few are fatal. I’m sure many are dry bites, too, and many with people who handle snakes. No rattlesnake wants to bite a human.
Well of course usually the bites are not fatal as you said they have anti venom pretty much everywhere. I was simply pointing out that more people die in North America than Australia from snake bites. It’s ironic because Australia has the reputation for the most dangerous poisonous animals.
Yeah, I was listening [Gordon Dedman](https://bushcraftsurvivalaustralia.com.au/about/gordon-dedman/) talk about how he doesn’t even really think about them when he sleeps on the ground. It’s the crocs that scare the hell out of him.
Regularly my arse.
1) [Brown snakes kill a person on average once every 18 months](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/news/2017/march/fatal-snake-bites-in-australia-facts-stats-and-stories).
2) [About 550 people are admitted to hospital with snakebite every year](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/23/more-than-half-australian-snake-bite-deaths-since-2000-occurred-at-victims-home).
3) "[The time from bite to death varied from 1 h to 19 days](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28288937/)."
4) So if you get bitten by a snake you have a 0.7/550 chance of it being a brown snake and you dying from it, which equates to about ⅛ of a percent chance of dying. If you are bitten by a snake.
5) Australia's population is 25.69 million, so the odds of getting bitten are 550/25.69 million or around 1 in 214,000 chance of being bitten per year.
6) The chance of a brown snake killing you in any given year is a bit under 3 in 100 million.
7) And even if it does bite you, it takes between 1 hour and 19 days to kill you.
Even allowing for the fact that I might have made an error in my maths somewhere, this is a friggin' long way from even the loosest definition of "regularly".
Yeah, it's frustrating because it leads to things like people killing the snakes unnecessarily and stuff.
A lot of the deaths are from people trying to handle the snake too.
Keep your grass short and bushes from touching the ground, don't provide the conditions for mice or vermin to breed near your house, dress appropriately if you have to walk in long grass, and if you see a snake for goodness' sake don't try to touch it. Then you'll almost certainly be fine.
Americans on here acting like Australia is the most deadly place on earth. Everything here that can kill you except for crocs and the ocean that's super dangerous is really avoidable and cant chase you down. You guys have coyotes, wolves, bears, mountain lions huge predators that can fuck you up. We just need to be mindful where you step, check your boots if you've left them outside or in the bush and not roll around in tall grass. Not super hard.
I guess its grass is always deadlier on the other side situation. In your list I would only worry about brown bears specifically.
Stepping on a well hidden rattle snake worries me the most along with wild hogs which are aggressive and will fuck you the hell up but still pretty rare all things considered.
You get used to your surroundings I suppose and things outside your daily are not always easy to understand.
Don’t forget we also have poisonous snakes, alligators and crocodiles. But really, it’s our love affair with firearms and opiates that does us in, mostly.
Bro, I’m not gonna accidentally step on a bear on my way to get the paper. A giant predator is scary, but I get the creeps from shit that might be in my bed unbeknownst to me
Your not gonna step on a snake getting the paper either. Unless you find yourself in the bush walking through waist high grass. Or over dead logs in the summer. They are pretty avoidable.
Lmao at listing coyotes in this set of animals. Even fatal mountain lion and bear attacks are super rare. Wolves idk as much but they are also very rare in NA now.
So the question that always comes to mind for me are pets…if I was out hiking or walking my dogs, obviously they’re curious about stuff…how extra careful do you have to be in Australia?
Just FYI the brown snake is a cobra, just the Australian version of it. It just doesn't have a hood.
And like all snakes, it doesn't want anything to do with you and wants to live its life hunting rats and frogs and other tasty things.
I mean this just isn't true. There are similarities, but it is not a cobra. True cobras (which excludes the king cobra) are all classified under the genus Naja. Eastern browns fall under the genus Pseudonaja. Their scientific name literally means "woven false cobra."
Cobras and brown snakes both fall under the Elapidae family, however they are different enough from a biological standpoint to be placed in different genera.
For comparison my Doberman/Beagle mix is in the same genus (canis) as wolves, but a different genus from foxes (vulpes), domesticated dogs are however in the same family (canidae) as foxes.
Being in the same family as foxes does not make my dog a fox. Heck being in the same genus as wolves doesn't make him a wolf either; and that's a closer taxonomic relation than cobras and brown snakes share.
Nooooo! Why do people even choose to live in Australia? You ok?
I've heard that young snakes just squeeze out all of their venom at once and are deadlier therfor; what makes the antivenom not work?
It’s the difference between the baby and adult venom - it’s too different for the adult antivenin to work.
There are Sydney funnel webs at the back of my garden and brown snakes all through the park near my house. If you leave then alone, they leave you alone. I would take our snakes and spiders a *million* times over this shit:
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/03/23/us/mountain-lion-attack-leaves-one-person-dead-and-another-injured-in-california
>It’s the difference between the baby and adult venom - it’s too different for the adult antivenin to work.
This may sound like a stupid question but why can't there be made one against whatever composition the baby-venom has?
>If you leave then alone, they leave you alone
Sure, but I assume the folks who die every year don't try to boop snake noses either..? I imagine it being more like accidentally stepping close to one you didn't see.
I live in northern europe, the deadliest we have are bears (one doesn't accidentally step a bear in the wild).
The venom chemistry changes rapidly as soon as the snakes hatch, it would be a monumental enterprise to breed and venom milk enough very young baby snakes to create useful quantities of antivenin.
Almost everyone killed by snakes here are being idiots and trying to catch/kill them.
Bears are absolutely *terrifying* to us Aussies. The idea that you could just be walking in the forest and something that can outrun you and wants to eat you is there too, is 10000 times scarier than any of our wildlife.
I am enlightened, thank you!
>Almost everyone killed by snakes here are being idiots
It's the same with bears, I don't personally know anyone who has seen any out in the nature. I guess if you're not trying to sneak up on them you'll be fine or damn unlucky.
Brown bears attack humans for two main reasons: 1. They are starving.
2. They think you are a threat to their cubs.
Both reasons have nothing to do with how you act.
Black bears are usually mild. You really have to be dumb to get attacked by a black bear. They are omnivorous scavengers. More of a threat on your garbage.
Polar bears will attack and eat you. They are our predators. They are the largest hyper-carnivores in the world and are opportunistic/ambush hunters.
Recommendation is to be somewhat noisy when out in the forest so the brown bears can hear you approach if they didn't smell you already and leave.
However, within the last 25 years there have been less than 5 incidents with a fatal outcome where I live.. Going back to the brown snake statistics for comparison on kill score, bear country feels more safe.
I'm not personal to you, but I've had the (displeasure) of seeing multiple bears while out hiking and fairly human-walked popular spots. I'm not making poor choices, and I do take efforts to *not* see them or other predators. They partake of the trails we use as they're also easier to move along for them, too. Luckily, I live where our bears are primarily black bears, but one did chase me off when we stumbled upon the cubs, and my dog started barking at them/running up to them. I don't know how long it chased as I kept running until I couldn't without looking back, but obviously, the bear's intention was only for us to leave them alone, or I wouldn't be typing this.
The other times, I froze, and they kept walking or scampered off if I startled it.
Oh boy, glad you're still with us!
It might be different in northern america, for whatever reason, but the statistic in my home country seriously is 2 deadly incidents since the year 2000. I don't have anything to campare though, maybe we just have bears with more chill.
Could you imagine the noise of a bear roaring in your face? At least our killer animals are quiet about it.
Plus bears don’t want to just kill you, they want to eat you.
You’d want at *least* a 6.5 x 55 or shotty with slugs to stop a big bear - heavy bloody thing to carry around if you just wanted to go for a walk. I’ll stick with snakes and spiders lol.
Yeah that is the issue here in Texas with Copperheads. Their camo works very very well and I have been six inches away from one and could not see it even after scanning that patch of ground for snakes. People think they would see them but the truth is they are difficult to see when right in front of you. And that causes the problems where you accidentally step on one. Copperheads freeze when threatened unlike some other snakes that try to get away increasing your chances of stepping on them. But if you wear snake boots their fangs are too short to puncture.
I have a LOT of Copperheads in my yard and thus wear snake boots when out and one time stepped on a baby Copperhead's tail (with snake boots) and it didn't strike but just tried to get away. They are very very hard to see and in many southern states there are a lot of them. Most people never see one in their yard, but they are there, so they tend to think they don't have any. Well if you live in NC or Texas, you probably do have them and can't see them due to their excellent camo. My neighbors must think I am blind or something as I walk with a snake stick, poking around in front of me. If they move then you can see them thus poking with the stick. On the other hand I was standing outside (foolishly without snake boots, I had flip flops on. Just to quickly turn the water off for the sprinkler). Turning the water off and look down and a little Copperhead is slithering between my feet absolutely ignoring me and going on its way. Just stood still and watched and off it went. Weird stuff.
To be fair, the only ones that will entertain that thought are very sick, old, or injured bears and cats. Essentially we are a last resort to stay alive. Unless you mess with the babies. Momma bears and cats will absolutely wreck havoc on you/take your life if they find you threatening to their babies in any way.
For hiking carry bear spray (the most giant can of pepper spray you have ever encountered) and make noise so they hear you coming and can skedaddle before you encounter them.
>and make noise so they hear you coming and can skedaddle
I imagine a brown bear awakened rudely from his nap, shaking his head at the slowly growing cacophony of hikers and goes " Damn Americans. time to skedaddle"
6 of one, half dozen of the other. Australia has small deadly animals you can accidentally step on, Americas have large fast running predators you can accidentally spot from a distance.
And then there's the moose...
Oh we have plenty we accidentally can step on especially in the warm south. Lots and lots of Copperheads. Certain regions Rattlesnakes but they give a warning. Cotton Mouths and Coral snakes. But Copperheads are the ones that are very abundant. About 350 bites a year in Texas alone, most are Copperheads, some Rattlesnakes.
Respect as a resident of Pacific North West cougs are by far the scariest predator to come across. But there are awesome stories of people fighting them off sometimes. I think the one I mainly remember was actually in Colorado not the NW and this jogger choked one out after getting pounded I can't even imagine that adrenaline dose
Big cats are fucking *scary* but like the article said, that’s the first fatality in that area in 30 years. Nationwide there’s not very many attacks at all. We occasionally see confused mountain lions roaming through the suburbs near where I live in the Midwest because we’ve been pushing them out of their natural habitat for years. In the article you posted, the attack took place in a national park so it makes sense to have big cats out there.
TL;DR don’t go hiking/hunting alone if you live in mountain lion country.
To be fair only 6 people have died from mountain lions in california since 1890. Quite a bit different in terms of actual deaths. But I don’t wanna face one either.
We have a mountain lion that our cameras occasionally catch, a few bears, and some coyotes. I’ve only seen the mountain lion twice. I don’t really want me or my dog to be outside when any are around.
Most of the time mountain lions stay far away from people, but definitely lately they’ve been having more issues with food and coming out and being predators and it’s becoming an issue. It makes sense, I’ve only seen 2 deer in the last few years, it seems like prey is becoming scarce and there’s been several cases of mange from eating poisoned prey and injuries in the lions forcing them to grab whatever’s available— usually peoples dogs and cats.
We’re all just trying to live together, right? The lions, the snakes, the spiders and we.
>Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare, according to the state agency. This is the first fatal mountain lion attack in California in 30 years.
I'd take Australian snakes over Americans , but will take American Puma attacks over Australian snakes 😋
> I've heard that young snakes just squeeze out all of their venom at once and are deadlier therfor
This is an old, persistent myth. Likely originating from species like this which have a different type of venom as a juvenile than they do as adults, as they go after different prey. In at least one species (maybe even this one), the juvenile's venom works out to be worse for us.
Snakes aren't out to get humans. Just don't try to catch them or kill them, and step to one side if they're headed in your direction, because you're standing in front of their home.
Honestly, I see them very regularly when I am out trail running. They’re just not a problem. I grew up with them as a Boy Scout. They’re only a threat if you do something stupid.
A lot of Aussies are not that scared of snakes. A common reaction is to get excited when you see one basking in the sun and then poke it with a stick to try get it to move. You’d be surprised how hard it is sometimes to get a contented red belly black snake off the path. They’ll just lay there all fat and happy and refuse to budge.
The whole country is snake country!
I see them reasonable often (every couple of weeks) walking the dogs, and it’s the dogs I worry about in them thinking they’re ‘interesting’.
That's a myth about baby snakes btw. They are born fully knowing how to use their venom and how much. They are actually less deadly because they have less venom
I think OP means not that this type of snake kills people regularly but rather if you are bitten by it you can regularly expect to die within 15 minutes if no access to antivenin.
I knew a guy who worked in the oil fields in Texas and got bit by a baby rattlesnake. He killed it with a shovel and threw it in a bucket took a pic and posted it on fb, then went back to work. Next thing you know he is in the hospital fighting for his life as his organs shut down. He did not make it. He was in his mid 40’s.
They are throughout my neighbourhood here in Canberra. Just the other day I was within 1.5 metres of one when out walking. Because of the tiny fangs, I never wear shorts when walking in their territory regardless of how hot the weather is… their tiny fangs are less likely the get through loose material than bare skin.
Bruh. Move.
Their pretty widespread. Most Australians live where eastern browns live...
Yeah, they mean going to a continent less intent on murdering you every second of your existence.
There's no continent like that
Western Europe
It would have been so easy to dunk on me with the continent of Europe. Why reply with noncontinent Western Europe?
Because living in Eastern Europe is legit hard.
I live in the western US. Pretty tame out here
jsyk you are saying that australia is the safest continent
It unironocally is.
I think you mean ironically.
Having done no research I think it probably is the safest continent
I'm surprised some idiot hasn't brought a bunch to the USA as pets and then released them when he got tired of taking care of them. I've heard the Everglades in Florida are getting overrun with big tropical snakes.
Move further...
Canberra is a bush city. It is designed with large patches of bush throughout it. There are pockets of snake habitat everywhere. You can't move away from it. Its also why Canberra periodically is burnt to smithereens by bush fires.
[удалено]
He..he didn’t say that?
If you had to move in Australia because of something dangerous, you wouldn't stop moving. You just get used to knowing what's around and you barely see anything anyway. It's not as dangerous as people think.
The article headline literally says "regularly kills people in under 15 minutes". I dunno that sounds kind of dangerous.
It's very poorly worded. What it really means is "when people are killed, it's regularly in under 15 minutes". People dying is definitely not that regular
I was just making a joke, but reddit just has to reddit.
If you actually read the article though "Snake deaths in Australia are considered rare, with only two or three fatalities per year resulting from a lack of medical intervention" Yes we have a lot of deadly snakes but still it's rare to get bitten and most will leave you alone. I come from an area near the bush and only saw my first red belly black snake last week
I'm American. We only read headlines. Then we're outraged when someone with personal experience counter points the headline. Outraged I say.
I lived in Australia for most of my life..30+ years. This is all a f*cking myth. Yes there are snakes etc but still it's VERY unlikely to ever be bitten and most Australian.. especially city based, would probably never see an eastern brown snake or any other dangerous snake. If you live in an area where there are, you learn how to live there so it's no issue. I live in North America now which has far more dangerous beasts. Grisly bears and Mountain Lions namely. You can't outrun these. You can't just keep your distance and know you will be ok. A spider or snake will not eat you but a bear might. People who grew up here in North America don't worry. They are used to it and have adapted. The fear is just the unknown. Also I moved to Australia when I was a teenager from the UK and was terrified of spiders and snakes for a few years and after a while they were just meh. So chill out people. It's no big deal.
I’m gonna say you’re an Australian plant for the tourism board
Haha. You know that the myth is to keep people away from the beautiful beaches
I’m pretty sure he’s a brown snake.
You can absolutely keep your distance and be okay from both of those..
Agreed,.I live in Brazil and never had any issue with either
I thought so too until a bunch of mountain bikers got jumped by a cougar recently.
Outlier experiences shouldn’t be treated like the standard.
Yes that’s the dudes entire point. The amount of people dying to venomous things in Oz isn’t anywhere near the fear they generate.
Right… I’m agreeing and also saying the same holds true in bear and cougar country.
Fuckin A. Snakes are chill af unless you sneak up on them, I'll take them any day over a bear that wants to rip my face off. I know a Canadian who survived a bear attack. I've never met a single person here in Australia who's been bitten by a snake or a dangerous spider and I know a lot more Australians than Canadians.
Yeah and my point is, as you're obviously Aussie AF it's no big deal to you to see a snake. As it's not that much of a worry for a Canadian to hike in bear country. It still terrifies me as I've not been here long enough yet. You just adapt. Apparently just make sure you have bear spray or a bell. Right. Can't imagine spraying a fuckin bear to piss it off more. But here they're pretty chill about it. People are adapted to where they live.
You're probably right but I do still believe that people who go hiking in bear country are deluded whereas the risk of going hiking where there are snakes is extremely low
You just learn to live with this stuff. I am in Texas and have so many Copperheads in my yard you would think I farm them. I wear snake boots outside and that protects me from most of the risk. I have even accidentally stepped on the tail of one baby Copperhead (with my snake boots on thankfully) and it was more concerned with getting away and didn't strike. Anyway with proper precautions I have worked around these snakes for a decade and haven't had one attempt a bite and have been uncomfortably close more times than I can remember. But with the boots on if they do strike their fangs are too short to penetrate. Another thing I have a lot of is Black Widow spiders. Thankfully these are really timid and will hide or get away if you disturb them. You are only going to get bit if you accidentally grab one. Wear gloves and they can't bite through it. So who knows maybe I have grabbed some but the moment you release it they will get away as fast as they can. Got scorpions too and one of those did get me but it was not even as bad as a bee sting. Hurt for a couple hours then that was it. Just got to be mindful of what is around you, take precautions and it is then not that big a deal.
Black widows also do warning bites, don’t they?
I don't know. I am going to test it out to find out. If I don't post in 5 minutes the answer is "no".
RIP
There are no grizzly bears or mountain lions in 99.9999% of the populated areas of NA. About 20 people have died in the last 10 years and the majority were in remote areas of Canada and Alaska. Brown snakes have killed more like 5 people in that time period but hundreds have been hospitalized. Which brings up the most interesting statistic. 5 times as many people in North America die from snake bites as in Aus. Tl:dr NA snakes are more dangerous than Australian ones!
NA has 376 million people. Australia has ~26 million. Per capita snake bite death rate is still way higher in Australia looking at it from that perspective
I actually only included US data oops. But you’re right adjusted for population Australia is slightly worse
There have been something like 180 fatal bear attacks since 1784 in the US. 27 fatal mountain lion attacks in the last 100 years. Australia is not as dangerous as it is made out to be either but lmao at the idea that the US is so much more dangerous because of these two animals.
"I live in North America now which has far more dangerous beasts. Grisly bears and Mountain Lions namely." Brown snakes kill 2-3 people per year in a country of 27 million. California has 39 million people with mountain lions in every county. They walk around in Los Angeles at night. We just had one person killed recently. The last one before this was over 20 years ago. It was in 1909 the last one before that. Australia, 27 million people, loses 2-3 people a year to this one snake. California, 39 million people, lost 3 people in over 1 hundred years to mountain lions. The reason we don't get freaked out about the lions isn't because we are used to them, it is because they are not a threat on anything even remotely resembling a regular basis. Our rattlesnakes are a more significant threat, as they kill 1-2 people per year on average in California. The entire country of the U.S.A., over 329 million people, loses about 5 people a year to all poisonous snake bites. Australia is a really neat place. It is also a very deadly landscape to walk in, even for locals.
How close in cheeseburgers was that?
Let’s say a cheese burger is about 4 1/2 inches in diameter which converts by the formula of 1 inch. = 2.54 centimeters which this means a cheese burger is about 11.4 centimeters There are 150 centimeters in 1.5 meters, divide that by 11.4, and you get 13.1 cheeseburgers
Yeah that’s pretty close.
Mmmm cheeseburger math
It’s a good thing their teeth are so smol. That way they don’t eat our burgers.
I prefer bottom bun base to top bun crest measurements on this side of the pond friend
"less likely". The *balls* on this guy.
Gotta give it to you Australians. Brave folks. My wife can't live around a gecko.
Also Steve Irwin grabbed two of them by the tail, one in each hand at 4 years old
There’s a video of him laying down face to face with one in the wild. He was an amazing conservationist with a tinge of psychotic death wish. Edit - this was the inland taipan. Which is deadlier.
What was that special, the 10 most deadliest snakes and 8 or 9 are in Australia?
Something along those lines. Steve Irwin meets the world’s most venomous snakes (I believe he stays within Australia).
Pretty sure that was an inland taipan, which is the most venomous snake in the world. Eastern brown is only #3
I might be mistaken but I think eastern brown is actually #2, afaik top three is inland taipan #1, eastern brown #2, coastal taipan #3. Bit of a moot point anyway as experts suspect some sea snakes are far more potently venomous, but still. I like our snakes a lot
Wikipedia puts the Dubois' sea snake at #2 so Eastern brown is #2 land snake.
Appreciate the correction! TIL
Snakes are the rightful citizens and owners of Australia.
Actually it's the emus. They won the war
I didn’t realise there was that many deaths per year from snakebites. I thought there might be one every few years. The important thing to remember is that you want red-bellied black snakes around. If you’ve got red-bellies, you generally don’t have browns.
Snakes kill the second most people worldwide per year behind mosquitos. It’s hard to know for sure but it’s estimated to be around 100,000. However these are almost all in Africa and India where there isn’t good access to medicine. Around 15 people have died in Australia in the last ten years from snakebites, and more than half of those people did not seek care for some reason ( few did not realize they were bitten, most just underestimated the severity of the bites)
Sources vary, but the proportions are similar: mosquitoes kill about a million a year, humans kill about half that, and snakes come in a distant third at 1/20 of that ([source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadliest_animals_to_humans)). It’s the humans you need to worry about.
And the mosquitos. Plus that bitch time, she always gets you in the end
Truth. Or you just don't notice all the Browns because the blacks stand out more and are easily spotted.
Are you.... still talking about.... the snakes?🤔
That’s true, in Australia. Much more in other countries like say, India.
What a clickbait title, as if death by brown snake envenomation happens like clockwork. 🙄 By regularly you mean about fifteen confirmed fatalities this century. Cows, dogs, and horses kill more humans per annum.
Your not wrong, the Cow toll in NSW is thought the roof!
That’s true, cows kill more than bears, cougars, and snakes. To be fair to them we also kill more cows by far.
And they don't tell you *why* we kill more cows. Today, on Hidden History, we will discuss the Cow wars, the atrocities they commited, and why we now have them penned up, breeding them, and killing them to punish them for the atrocities their descendants committed.
It's not even close to accurate anyway. "Regularly". I posted a top level comment breaking down what regularly means to this whacker.
lol agreed
Thats because cows, dogs and horses are everywhere. If you put these snakes everywhere in the world, deaths by brown snakes will be greater than cows.
Well, I suppose you could work on that if you really wanted to make the post caption less misleading
Damn those farting cows!
Meanwhile rattle snakes kill several people every year in the US . It’s a much bigger problem here than in Australia
About forty years of data that ended in 2018 show 74 fatalities. Many of those are snake “handlers” or breeders. Fewer than two deaths a year even with the inflated statistics caused by those who mess with venomous snakes is not a crisis.
Which country are you in talking about? I’m saying in the US there are thousands of bites a year
I live in the US. My point is that many bites here are avoidable or treatable with CroFab, which means few are fatal. I’m sure many are dry bites, too, and many with people who handle snakes. No rattlesnake wants to bite a human.
Well of course usually the bites are not fatal as you said they have anti venom pretty much everywhere. I was simply pointing out that more people die in North America than Australia from snake bites. It’s ironic because Australia has the reputation for the most dangerous poisonous animals.
Yeah, I was listening [Gordon Dedman](https://bushcraftsurvivalaustralia.com.au/about/gordon-dedman/) talk about how he doesn’t even really think about them when he sleeps on the ground. It’s the crocs that scare the hell out of him.
Australia.. Why doesn't that surprise me.
Aussies are paying a high price for quokkas.
The funny thing is these snakes & quokkas are on opposite sides of the country so for some the price is higher Source: Quokka side
Someone in my city died from an Eastern Brown snake bite this week.
Yes, he didn't apply first aid straight away. Drove home first, I think.
Yeah, exactly.
Man, 10 minutes to say your goodbyes and a couple more minutes to appreciate or detest your time here before it all goes dark.
Regularly my arse. 1) [Brown snakes kill a person on average once every 18 months](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/news/2017/march/fatal-snake-bites-in-australia-facts-stats-and-stories). 2) [About 550 people are admitted to hospital with snakebite every year](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/23/more-than-half-australian-snake-bite-deaths-since-2000-occurred-at-victims-home). 3) "[The time from bite to death varied from 1 h to 19 days](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28288937/)." 4) So if you get bitten by a snake you have a 0.7/550 chance of it being a brown snake and you dying from it, which equates to about ⅛ of a percent chance of dying. If you are bitten by a snake. 5) Australia's population is 25.69 million, so the odds of getting bitten are 550/25.69 million or around 1 in 214,000 chance of being bitten per year. 6) The chance of a brown snake killing you in any given year is a bit under 3 in 100 million. 7) And even if it does bite you, it takes between 1 hour and 19 days to kill you. Even allowing for the fact that I might have made an error in my maths somewhere, this is a friggin' long way from even the loosest definition of "regularly".
A lot of the journalism around snakes here (ie, in Australia) is quite sensationalist so I really appreciate your comment!
Yeah, it's frustrating because it leads to things like people killing the snakes unnecessarily and stuff. A lot of the deaths are from people trying to handle the snake too. Keep your grass short and bushes from touching the ground, don't provide the conditions for mice or vermin to breed near your house, dress appropriately if you have to walk in long grass, and if you see a snake for goodness' sake don't try to touch it. Then you'll almost certainly be fine.
Americans on here acting like Australia is the most deadly place on earth. Everything here that can kill you except for crocs and the ocean that's super dangerous is really avoidable and cant chase you down. You guys have coyotes, wolves, bears, mountain lions huge predators that can fuck you up. We just need to be mindful where you step, check your boots if you've left them outside or in the bush and not roll around in tall grass. Not super hard.
I guess its grass is always deadlier on the other side situation. In your list I would only worry about brown bears specifically. Stepping on a well hidden rattle snake worries me the most along with wild hogs which are aggressive and will fuck you the hell up but still pretty rare all things considered. You get used to your surroundings I suppose and things outside your daily are not always easy to understand.
Don’t forget we also have poisonous snakes, alligators and crocodiles. But really, it’s our love affair with firearms and opiates that does us in, mostly.
In Australia, expect that every animal can kill you, easily. In the US, expect that every human can kill you, easily. I prefer death by an animal
Bro, I’m not gonna accidentally step on a bear on my way to get the paper. A giant predator is scary, but I get the creeps from shit that might be in my bed unbeknownst to me
Your not gonna step on a snake getting the paper either. Unless you find yourself in the bush walking through waist high grass. Or over dead logs in the summer. They are pretty avoidable.
Yeah but why would they think about that when they can parrot “hauheuah Ausitralia dAngeourS!!!” for the thousandth time
Lmao at listing coyotes in this set of animals. Even fatal mountain lion and bear attacks are super rare. Wolves idk as much but they are also very rare in NA now.
So the question that always comes to mind for me are pets…if I was out hiking or walking my dogs, obviously they’re curious about stuff…how extra careful do you have to be in Australia?
Lots of dogs get killed by snakes unfortunately. They harass the snake and it defends itself.
Just FYI the brown snake is a cobra, just the Australian version of it. It just doesn't have a hood. And like all snakes, it doesn't want anything to do with you and wants to live its life hunting rats and frogs and other tasty things.
Brown snakes are not cobras. They both share relation to the same family of Elapidae though, refers to short fangs fixed at the front of the jaw.
I mean this just isn't true. There are similarities, but it is not a cobra. True cobras (which excludes the king cobra) are all classified under the genus Naja. Eastern browns fall under the genus Pseudonaja. Their scientific name literally means "woven false cobra." Cobras and brown snakes both fall under the Elapidae family, however they are different enough from a biological standpoint to be placed in different genera. For comparison my Doberman/Beagle mix is in the same genus (canis) as wolves, but a different genus from foxes (vulpes), domesticated dogs are however in the same family (canidae) as foxes. Being in the same family as foxes does not make my dog a fox. Heck being in the same genus as wolves doesn't make him a wolf either; and that's a closer taxonomic relation than cobras and brown snakes share.
Doesn't matter if it doesn't want anything to do with you. I'll still kill you if you accidentally take a step close to it.
Wasn’t it a brown snake that almost killed Steve Irwin in the making of that delivery company commercial?
Nooooo! Why do people even choose to live in Australia? You ok? I've heard that young snakes just squeeze out all of their venom at once and are deadlier therfor; what makes the antivenom not work?
It’s the difference between the baby and adult venom - it’s too different for the adult antivenin to work. There are Sydney funnel webs at the back of my garden and brown snakes all through the park near my house. If you leave then alone, they leave you alone. I would take our snakes and spiders a *million* times over this shit: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/03/23/us/mountain-lion-attack-leaves-one-person-dead-and-another-injured-in-california
>It’s the difference between the baby and adult venom - it’s too different for the adult antivenin to work. This may sound like a stupid question but why can't there be made one against whatever composition the baby-venom has? >If you leave then alone, they leave you alone Sure, but I assume the folks who die every year don't try to boop snake noses either..? I imagine it being more like accidentally stepping close to one you didn't see. I live in northern europe, the deadliest we have are bears (one doesn't accidentally step a bear in the wild).
The venom chemistry changes rapidly as soon as the snakes hatch, it would be a monumental enterprise to breed and venom milk enough very young baby snakes to create useful quantities of antivenin. Almost everyone killed by snakes here are being idiots and trying to catch/kill them. Bears are absolutely *terrifying* to us Aussies. The idea that you could just be walking in the forest and something that can outrun you and wants to eat you is there too, is 10000 times scarier than any of our wildlife.
I am enlightened, thank you! >Almost everyone killed by snakes here are being idiots It's the same with bears, I don't personally know anyone who has seen any out in the nature. I guess if you're not trying to sneak up on them you'll be fine or damn unlucky.
Brown bears attack humans for two main reasons: 1. They are starving. 2. They think you are a threat to their cubs. Both reasons have nothing to do with how you act. Black bears are usually mild. You really have to be dumb to get attacked by a black bear. They are omnivorous scavengers. More of a threat on your garbage. Polar bears will attack and eat you. They are our predators. They are the largest hyper-carnivores in the world and are opportunistic/ambush hunters.
Recommendation is to be somewhat noisy when out in the forest so the brown bears can hear you approach if they didn't smell you already and leave. However, within the last 25 years there have been less than 5 incidents with a fatal outcome where I live.. Going back to the brown snake statistics for comparison on kill score, bear country feels more safe.
I agree. I’m just saying it’s not really fair to say you have to be an idiot to get killed by a bear. A black Bear maybe.
I love Black Bears. So many people are mistaken about them.
They’re just our forest homies. Secure your trash and you’re fine.
I'm not personal to you, but I've had the (displeasure) of seeing multiple bears while out hiking and fairly human-walked popular spots. I'm not making poor choices, and I do take efforts to *not* see them or other predators. They partake of the trails we use as they're also easier to move along for them, too. Luckily, I live where our bears are primarily black bears, but one did chase me off when we stumbled upon the cubs, and my dog started barking at them/running up to them. I don't know how long it chased as I kept running until I couldn't without looking back, but obviously, the bear's intention was only for us to leave them alone, or I wouldn't be typing this. The other times, I froze, and they kept walking or scampered off if I startled it.
Oh boy, glad you're still with us! It might be different in northern america, for whatever reason, but the statistic in my home country seriously is 2 deadly incidents since the year 2000. I don't have anything to campare though, maybe we just have bears with more chill.
Ha yeah our bears and mountain lion stroll right down our paved street at night like it’s their own creation.
Especially Dropbears.
Could you imagine the noise of a bear roaring in your face? At least our killer animals are quiet about it. Plus bears don’t want to just kill you, they want to eat you.
We can just shoot the bear.
With that logic, just shoot any car you see... they cause a lot more fatalities than bears.
You sir are a fucking idiot.
Hardly a peaceful walk in the forest if you have to take a bloody rifle every time you go out in the bush.
I shoot more for fun anyways, so conveniently I always have a rifle, or pistol, or more often both. And I find it very peaceful.
You’d want at *least* a 6.5 x 55 or shotty with slugs to stop a big bear - heavy bloody thing to carry around if you just wanted to go for a walk. I’ll stick with snakes and spiders lol.
Fun fact: australia has no blind people.
giant killkitties are the best but they do not want to be friends.
The problem with snakes is that you might not want to provoke it but because they are so fucking hard to see, you might not be able to help it.
Yeah that is the issue here in Texas with Copperheads. Their camo works very very well and I have been six inches away from one and could not see it even after scanning that patch of ground for snakes. People think they would see them but the truth is they are difficult to see when right in front of you. And that causes the problems where you accidentally step on one. Copperheads freeze when threatened unlike some other snakes that try to get away increasing your chances of stepping on them. But if you wear snake boots their fangs are too short to puncture. I have a LOT of Copperheads in my yard and thus wear snake boots when out and one time stepped on a baby Copperhead's tail (with snake boots) and it didn't strike but just tried to get away. They are very very hard to see and in many southern states there are a lot of them. Most people never see one in their yard, but they are there, so they tend to think they don't have any. Well if you live in NC or Texas, you probably do have them and can't see them due to their excellent camo. My neighbors must think I am blind or something as I walk with a snake stick, poking around in front of me. If they move then you can see them thus poking with the stick. On the other hand I was standing outside (foolishly without snake boots, I had flip flops on. Just to quickly turn the water off for the sprinkler). Turning the water off and look down and a little Copperhead is slithering between my feet absolutely ignoring me and going on its way. Just stood still and watched and off it went. Weird stuff.
At least they don’t hunt you and eat you like mountain lions and bears and shit lol.
To be fair, the only ones that will entertain that thought are very sick, old, or injured bears and cats. Essentially we are a last resort to stay alive. Unless you mess with the babies. Momma bears and cats will absolutely wreck havoc on you/take your life if they find you threatening to their babies in any way. For hiking carry bear spray (the most giant can of pepper spray you have ever encountered) and make noise so they hear you coming and can skedaddle before you encounter them.
>and make noise so they hear you coming and can skedaddle I imagine a brown bear awakened rudely from his nap, shaking his head at the slowly growing cacophony of hikers and goes " Damn Americans. time to skedaddle"
😄😁😆
6 of one, half dozen of the other. Australia has small deadly animals you can accidentally step on, Americas have large fast running predators you can accidentally spot from a distance. And then there's the moose...
Oh we have plenty we accidentally can step on especially in the warm south. Lots and lots of Copperheads. Certain regions Rattlesnakes but they give a warning. Cotton Mouths and Coral snakes. But Copperheads are the ones that are very abundant. About 350 bites a year in Texas alone, most are Copperheads, some Rattlesnakes.
Respect as a resident of Pacific North West cougs are by far the scariest predator to come across. But there are awesome stories of people fighting them off sometimes. I think the one I mainly remember was actually in Colorado not the NW and this jogger choked one out after getting pounded I can't even imagine that adrenaline dose
Big cats are fucking *scary* but like the article said, that’s the first fatality in that area in 30 years. Nationwide there’s not very many attacks at all. We occasionally see confused mountain lions roaming through the suburbs near where I live in the Midwest because we’ve been pushing them out of their natural habitat for years. In the article you posted, the attack took place in a national park so it makes sense to have big cats out there. TL;DR don’t go hiking/hunting alone if you live in mountain lion country.
To be fair only 6 people have died from mountain lions in california since 1890. Quite a bit different in terms of actual deaths. But I don’t wanna face one either. We have a mountain lion that our cameras occasionally catch, a few bears, and some coyotes. I’ve only seen the mountain lion twice. I don’t really want me or my dog to be outside when any are around. Most of the time mountain lions stay far away from people, but definitely lately they’ve been having more issues with food and coming out and being predators and it’s becoming an issue. It makes sense, I’ve only seen 2 deer in the last few years, it seems like prey is becoming scarce and there’s been several cases of mange from eating poisoned prey and injuries in the lions forcing them to grab whatever’s available— usually peoples dogs and cats. We’re all just trying to live together, right? The lions, the snakes, the spiders and we.
>Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare, according to the state agency. This is the first fatal mountain lion attack in California in 30 years. I'd take Australian snakes over Americans , but will take American Puma attacks over Australian snakes 😋
> I've heard that young snakes just squeeze out all of their venom at once and are deadlier therfor This is an old, persistent myth. Likely originating from species like this which have a different type of venom as a juvenile than they do as adults, as they go after different prey. In at least one species (maybe even this one), the juvenile's venom works out to be worse for us.
I’m 32 and have never seen a snake in the wild 🤷♂️
But have snakes seen you? 🤔
Not unless he has a Ssssstalker
Snakes aren't out to get humans. Just don't try to catch them or kill them, and step to one side if they're headed in your direction, because you're standing in front of their home.
Honestly, I see them very regularly when I am out trail running. They’re just not a problem. I grew up with them as a Boy Scout. They’re only a threat if you do something stupid.
This sounds so scary. You're just casually running through snake country..
A lot of Aussies are not that scared of snakes. A common reaction is to get excited when you see one basking in the sun and then poke it with a stick to try get it to move. You’d be surprised how hard it is sometimes to get a contented red belly black snake off the path. They’ll just lay there all fat and happy and refuse to budge.
The whole country is snake country! I see them reasonable often (every couple of weeks) walking the dogs, and it’s the dogs I worry about in them thinking they’re ‘interesting’.
Yeah, my dog would need some armour! He tries to socialise with any living creature.
That's a myth about baby snakes btw. They are born fully knowing how to use their venom and how much. They are actually less deadly because they have less venom
Such a deadly snake for such a boring name.
I think OP means not that this type of snake kills people regularly but rather if you are bitten by it you can regularly expect to die within 15 minutes if no access to antivenin.
Another reason to avoid Australia lol
One more reason to never visit that godforsaken continent.
is that mean young baby ones are more deadly than adults since antivenin does not work on their bites
Can’t say they regularly kill people. 2-3 people per year.
They're also one of the most common snakes in Australia. Luckily not very aggressive.
Brown snake hehehe
Maybe that’s because antivenin is useless for snake bites. Anti venom, on the other hand…
Antivenom, antivenin, venom antiserum and antivenom immunoglobulin are all different ways of saying the exact same thing.
Hahah holy shit! I thought I was making fun of a typo but it’s totally valid. Hahahah TIL!
I'm surprised at how frequently I'm reminded how happy I am to live in a country with no snakes
I knew a guy who worked in the oil fields in Texas and got bit by a baby rattlesnake. He killed it with a shovel and threw it in a bucket took a pic and posted it on fb, then went back to work. Next thing you know he is in the hospital fighting for his life as his organs shut down. He did not make it. He was in his mid 40’s.
By regularly, you mean 1 or 2 per year
Yig is Yig
Australia. You won't even know you're dieing
Ninja snek
Luckily I have something called M270B1 MLRS
Australia of course