You covered so many great points Nick, as always you’ve outdone yourself and provided an excellent conversation. There is so much more to assessing a snake’s potential danger than venom toxicity, and you covered just about everything I would think to talk about. I hope a lot of people see this video and gain some new perspective! - Harrison and Evan
Many years ago, I was on Station out past St George - the Station Owner had to (unfortunately) dispatch a large Brown Snake that had his wife bailed up in the kitchen - she was really freaked out and the snake was in striking mode. His two young kids were distraught - this was their “playmate - Charlie”. Apparently they used to visit this snake under the old Queenslander home, handle and stroke it. Never even looked like striking apparently. I guess they were so gentle and the snake never felt threatened, that it just got used to them. RIP “Charlie”. I would not recommend a Brown as a playmate though.
@@kelvin869 aren't eastern browns also more commonly found because of their adaptability, especially in places where humans may get too close (comparably)?
A few months ago there was a RU-vid short in which a toddler was swimming in a small rubber pool in her Australian backyard, when suddenly, her mother who was watching her, rose quickly and scooped the little girl up just moments before a brown snake came onto the screen. The encounter was caught on CCTV.
Your explanation on Saw Scaled viper and Russell viper behaviour is very enlightening concerning how snakes can be very dangerous to people. Very good information, thank you.
Vipers are the snakes that scare me the most. The long fangs, fast strike speed, the large volume of venom usually injected, the cytotoxic effects of the venom. The Russell's viper in particular is nasty.
Yeah at least if an elapidae bites you it will usually be over quickly depending on species. And they're not as cranky I find. But most of the elapidae I handle are true cobras and those are very motion oriented making them easier to predict (at least I find it so). Viperae are fast and grumpy little shitheads (double that if they're arboreal) with some really really nasty venom. Some species can take anywhere from 2hrs to 4days to kill you and you'll wish you were dead long before that. It's like someone asked them what kind of venom they wanted and they just answered yes. I'd take a bite from a king cobra over a lancehead any day. Sure, I might lose a finger or two but the king has a pretty good survival rate. Lancehead will fuck you up and it almost always has some level of permanent lifelong effects.
Great information and your gentle handling of the animal is admirable. None of the sensationalistic provocation that I have seen from some who shall remain nameless. Be all that as it may, I can't see myself ever doing that, even with a non-venomous snake.
Thanks for the video was great not a fan of easterns cause since I've been going for my venomous permits and learning to handle etc I find them very flighty but yours is stunning 😍
Mines not always like this, was a pretty cool day and the video took longer then I had planned. You can often see him in his regular attitude on our livestreams each Tuesday night
@@WickedWildlife haha yeah easterns we’re the first venomous I started with handling wise and all that I think there stunning but would never own one give me a red bellied, collets snake or a death adder anytime 😍
Love ur videos mate, keep them coming. I once saw 2 eastern browns mating back in the 80s. 2 months later a guy was paid 50K for footage of Eastern browns mating because it had never been filmed b4. Video cameras back then weighed 400 kg and cost 100 million so I didn't have one unluckily...Lol
Love your constant focus on the eastern brown. That's the amount of focus people should have while they're driving LOL: allowing a 2 second distraction but the main focus should always be on potential danger all around. :)
Knowing how informative your videos are, and how you are very good at dispelling myths about our snakes, I am sharing this before I watch. I'm 35 seconds in...Oh, and i shared with my comment, "For those with phobias/fears of our Aussie snakes, you should watch this. It may help dispel those fears".
One time a couple of my friends and I were on a float trip in eastern Oklahoma, and we saw an American copperhead sunning itself on a small board near the bank of the river. This guy jumped out of our canoe, ran over to where the copperhead was, and swung his paddle down as hard as he could on the copperhead. Then, for about twenty seconds, he was holding his paddle over his head and looking for the copperhead down by his feet. The guy got lucky and didn't get bit, but a guy that stupid probably deserved to.
This was awesome!!! Nick is one of most informative RU-vidrs anywhere. Listen to how he doesn’t just immediately denounce people from third world countries for relying on tribal medicine. But instead explains why they might think that this helps.
Cheers mate. Another excellent video! Please, is it true that Tigers are more aggressive and territorial than Browns? Especially during mating season? And, how much difference does temperature and time of year make to snake behaviour?
Great video, eastern browns are my most encountered snake i see in the bush and every single one of them I've encountered has been really chilled as I've been calm and give it lots of space. The only snake I really fear is the death adder, as.like you say they'll just stay camouflaged and you could step on them by mistake.
His abit cold here, yesterday was freezing but had planned to have video over and done with in half an hour, only finished the first take to find out I’d cut my head out of the entire thing 😂 So by the time I did it all again he was certainly ready to go home back to his warm tank, but his back to his normal self now 😊
G'day, Nick! Hope you and yours are well. My recovery is coming along slow, but steady. Still can't speak yet, but hopefully that will come back eventually. If you are walking in a parklike setting, and stick to the paths and don't wander off, are you less likely to get bitten? Or are there snakes that actively hunt people no matter what? I just wondered if, by sticking to the main paths, sidewalks, etc., you can more actively avoid them. Cheers! (They've got to stop with this lockdown ridiculousness over there! Enough already!) Your American friend, Val🐨
Gday Val! Stoked to hear you are recovering, however slow that may be No snake will actively hunt people out to bite them so yes, sticking to paths greatly reduces your chances of the bite
That brown was kind of mellow even though it was unhappy. Ricky mack was bitten by a coastal taipan. Granted he should have left it alone but it was going berserk. 100 times angrier than this brown.
Good old Death Adder doesn't like to move much. My mother has almost stood on one at least 3 times I've been with her at Sealrocks in NSW. Wish she would watch where she's walking a bit more.
Russell's Viper LD 50 0.3321mgkg and the Fer de Lance LD 50 1.9-11.2mgkg sc hemotoxic venom with traces of neurotoxins in some areas is two of the most dangerous snakes IMHO. Wide range lives in close proximity to humans in agricultural regions and lack of antivenin in many regions of their range.
completely unrelated, i know they are arboreal as hatchlings, but are they still hanging up in the trees at 17ft+, just curious cause im looking at getting one
@@Frank-bh3cm I mean it is winter and he’s in Victoria which is near the bottom of Australia. You’d expect snakes, cold blooded animals to be a bit sluggish around these times.
My great uncle was the grand chandra your are skilled at snake handling these things don't fuk around I've seen them in action they move especially when you step on it's tail I saw my brother get chased by one of these your a weapon mate
Great video as always. And a really good explanation why people prefer to visit their local witch doctor when they are bitten. Because I always wondered how they can believe in the advice of the witch doctor when all people bitten die afterwards. But of course - with a big amount of dry bites the situation is different. So every dry bite was a magical cure of the witch doctor and every death (because of too late going there) at the hospital is a prove that one cannot trust the doctors.... understandable but nevertheless tragic.
It depends how you measure it, in terms of most dangerous to handle, then very possibly In terms of most dangerous to the public in its home range, then not really, The things that make it dangerous to handle (eg skittish nature, alertness and speed) are the very same things that enables it to disappear before you even see it On the flip side hundreds of people within the mambas range step on puff adders and die every year
All great discussion but I'm surprised you didn't discuss simple aggressiveness of the snakes personality. You're so knowledgeable that maybe it was intentional? But in my (very humble) opinion it's a factor. As a kid, 8 to 12, bushbashing and playing in creeks and things I found myself in situations with red belly blacks a few times (mostly accidental) where I could have easily been bitten, it was the snakes choice. At that age it would probably kill me very fast. But the old black snakes let me go. I don't think in the same situations an eastern brown would have been anywhere near as restrained.
It is a factor but not in the way most Australians realise Globally the snakes we consider to be “aggressive” bite far less people then the snakes that just sit still and hope you walk past. The black mamba is possibly the best example (and you can think of it like an eastern brown on speed) they are considered the most aggressive snake in Africa, but for every person killed by mambas you have dozens killed by puff adders, because the snakes that stand up, hiss and carry on are stepped on less often then the snakes that just sit in the bushes and hope for the best
@@WickedWildlife i understand what you're saying. Dangerous to fuck with, not so dangerous to live with. Two different categories and the latter affects the body count vastly more than the former. Maybe the browns wouldn't let themselves end up under my bloody feet like the black snakes did, but I wouldn't describe a black as a covert snake either. Anyway thank you for your reply. I will always have a soft spot for the old red belly black, for letting me grow up 😂
@tosgem I totally agree about R B black snakes. I had a very large black snake come out of my Fire wood pile from behind and cruise past about a foot away from my thonged foot. I happened to have a stick in my hand that I placed between its head and my foot (probably no use but i mistakenly thought it was some protection) the snake just flared its neck a little because of my action and then just kept going. The reality is the snake was very calm considering and I am so glad it was a brown. We do have brown at the to and bottom of the street so I want our big black snake to stay and hopefully move any brown snakes on. We just shake the bushes when we let the cats out in our pool enclosure. I have to say R B Black's are stunningly beautiful up close.
I’d love to know your thoughts on the most potent venom in Africa….? Some train of thought say it’s the Boomslang! How can it’s venom be more potent when it’s slower acting and a higher survival rate than a Black Mamba? The Mamba can drop you into a grave in less thank 30 minutes and a higher likelihood of death! So please help me to understand this?????? Cheers mate. 👍
Not that I would want to be bitten by a venomous snake, but I'd rather be bitten by an Australian snake than in another country because we know we have the best quality anti-venom on hand at hospitals.
He's a beauty m8 as someone who is fascinated with snakes I'd say the African black mamba is probably the most dangerous due to their size temperment and proximity to humans would u agree atleast in some part
In some ways yes, the mamba is in my opinion likely the most dangerous snake to work with, but in terms of danger to the public the mamba is actually responsible for less bites and deaths than other snakes in its habitat such as puff adders. The traits that make a snake hard to handle, eg being fast, flighty and athletic, also mean it’s a snake well equipped to get out of our way, often before we even know it’s there
I agree if your talking in terms of people handling them, but if your talking about the average Joe walking through the bush then other species bite and kill far more people even in the mambas natural range
7:05 I used to live in an area in far North Queensland near Cooktown that was locally known as 'Death Adder Valley'. They were apparently very common in this one place. Unsurprisingly, I never saw one. However, I always wore boots, spats, and jeans when wandering the scrub, just in case.
It depends how you define dangerous, In terms of being dangerous to handle I certainly agree it’s likely the most dangerous snake in earth, due to its athleticism and length, however if we are talking about danger to the public, even in its natural range it bites and kills significantly fewer people then the cryptic species like the puff adder, because the traits that make it dangerous to handle (like it’s alertness and speed) also mean that most of the time it’s gone before you even see it
It really depends on how you define it For example even in areas where black mambas live, more people are killed by puff adders, because they are easier to step on, Meanwhile mambas are significantly more dangerous to actually handle, but the vast majority of people are not actively handling these snakes If we are talking in terms of how dangerous they are to the public then the mamba is certainly not the most dangerous snake on earth
I somewhat disagree, how many people are affected or die often depends on a bunch of factors, of which toxicity is one (although not the most important)
That is the factor what is countries in Africa and India lack resources to make accidentally supply of anti-venom. And if it was the other way around a lot of Australian snakes, for them, play the top 10 most dangerous.
I somewhat disagree, if we sent Australian snakes over seas they would certianly be more dangerous, but in terms of numbers the cryptic snakes like vipers cause far more bites
@@WickedWildlife right button, their personality besides the eastern brown a lot of Aussie elapids you really have to piss off to get them to bite you.
@@WickedWildlife call Sasha S about the eastern brown, even though they have tiny things they still have the mobility to reach up and bite it right in the upper body area. Black mamba fangs aren’t that impressive either as long as you wear protective clothing.
What makes the most dangerous snake... the dumbass messing with it XD (leave it to the professionals). Great video :D. Also lack of education doesn't help matters.