Taipan

Taipans are large (up to 3 metres in length), fast, highly venomous Australian snakes, one of which, the Fierce Snake, has the most toxic venom of any land species worldwide, although it is not the most deadly. The taipan was named by Donald Thompson after the word used by the Wik-Mungkan Aboriginal people of central Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia.^[1]

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There are three known species: the common taipan, the less common inland taipan (also known as the Fierce Snake and small-scaled snake) (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) and a recently discovered third species.^[2] The common taipan has two subspecies: the mainland coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus scutellatus) and the Papuan taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus canni) native to the southern coast of Papua New Guinea. Their diet consists primarily of small rodents, especially rats, and bandicoots.

Description

The coastal taipan is usually pale to dark brown in colour, fading to a lateral cream, although juveniles are lighter in colour. The Papuan taipan is black or purplish-gray, with a copper-coloured stripe on its back. They are easily found in sugar fields due to an abundance of rats - their main food source.

Venom and toxicity

The inland taipan is often considered to be the most venomous land snake. With an LD50 of 0.025 mg/kg, it is 20 times as venomous as a common cobra. Lethal dose calculations are made on mice, so they have a murine bias. The bias is emphasised in this species of snake, as it is specialised to feed on rodents. Calculated LD50 values might not be applicable to non-mammalian species, and may even be inaccurate for mammals other than mice and other rodents. The venom from a single bite of the inland taipan might be potent enough to kill about 250,000 mice, or the mass-equivalent of 100 men. This species generally lives in remote and sparsely inhabited areas. Like most snakes, inland taipans are generally shy and will usually not bite unless they feel threatened. No fatalities have been attributed to this species, and all known bites have been to people who keep them in captivity or actively seek them out in the wild.

The common taipan is the third-most venomous snake on Earth and arguably the largest venomous snake in Australia. Its venom contains Taicatoxin, a highly potent neurotoxin. The danger posed by the coastal taipan was brought to Australian public awareness in 1950, when young herpetologist Kevin Budden was fatally bitten in capturing the first specimen available for antivenom research. The common taipan is often considered to be one of the deadliest species in the world. Mortality rate without treatment is second only to the black mamba, nearing 100%.^[3] However, antivenom treatment is highly effective. In several aspects of morphology, ecology and behaviour, the common taipan is strongly convergent with an African elapid, Dendroaspis polylepis (the black mamba).^[4]

Notes

1. ^ Sutton, Peter 1995 Wik Ngathan dictionary
2. ^ mapress.com
3. ^ http://www.seanthomas.net/oldsite/danger.html
4. ^ http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-1511(198303)17:1%3C60:EOHVST%3E2.0.CO;2-A