My encounter with one of the worlds most deadliest predators

[Barbarian Nobility]

Im sorry if this is not the correct forum for this, but I could not find any threads relating to 'nature', if such a forum does exist please forgive me for 'not seeing the forest for the trees'.

So anyway I got away from the wife and kids for an adventure weekend shooting ferals at long reach, QLD. Any of you with experience in camping, hiking or basic survivalism will know that when you are treking, you always step 'ontop of and over logs' rather than just walking over them to avoid being bitten on the groin or legs by snakes or spiders. Well for some reason, namely fatigue and slight dehydration I decided that whilst walking a slight but long incline up a hill I would take a seat on a rock to catch my breath. When I sat down I heard what could best be described as a muffled wheeze, i waited a moment and heard nothing so lit a cigarette and starting thinking about whats for dinner. Within a few moments i hear a dull tapping as tho someone is backhanding their knuckles on stone and I feel a rythmic vibration of tapping next to my posterior. I looked over my shoulder...........and I can say with pride that I did not immediately empty the contents of my bowels into my underpants, but unfortunately I could not control the high pitched and dare I say it, femine shriek that issued from my lips. Approximately four inches from my left backside, the rock which I was sitting on was being bitten by an Inland Taipan for those of you who are not Australian or Biologists that is the most venemous and deadly snake in the entire world

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Stats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Taipan

It would appear that the rock that I was sitting on was rather loosely fixed in the earth and that the snake lived or was hibernating under it. My generous and quite jolly girth (approx. 120kg) had pinned it under the rock, with its maximun striking distance being about four inches from my backside. Long Reach is an expansive and desolate wilderness, we'd ridden ATV's to get to the shooting grounds for approximately 45 minutes, and the nearest town (charleston) was a further hour from there. If I had of been bitten there is a 99.9% chance that I would have died before getting help.

Of coarse the moment I realised what I was sitting on i bolted with all the life I had in me as Taipans move extremely fast and are extremely aggressive.

From now on I will endevour to stay indoors away from nature and the next time my wife naggs me about playing too many computer games I will remind here of nearly being bitten on the arse by one of the worlds most deadliest predators.

Thankyou and I hope you enjoyed my foible.

[Yoda Twin]

Nasty little critters. Though no where in comparison, we get a fair few eastern brown's at our house and I've had multiple occasions where I'm centimetres from being bitten, thankfully brownies are no where near as aggressive as Taipan's

[Barbarian Nobility]

Nasty little critters. Though no where in comparison, we get a fair few eastern brown's at our house and I've had multiple occasions where I'm centimetres from being bitten, thankfully brownies are no where near as aggressive as Taipan's

The funny thing about King Browns is that the hatchlings are in some respects MORE dangerous then the full grown ones - Its a natural instinct of all venemous snakes that once they bite they let go in order to preserve venom. Baby King Browns will bite and NOT let go because they haven't learnt that instinct, and subsequently secrete more UG's of venom inspite of their much smaller venom glands.
Long Reach was a holiday, i actually reside in South Australia. Down here the most populous snake is the King Brown though we also have many Tiger Snakes

For everyone elses posterity especially those of us who are non-Australian, Australia has 4 of the top 5 deadliest snakes in abundance. For comparison the venom of the Inland Taipan is 50 times more toxic than that of the King Cobra and about 500 times more toxic than that of the Rattlesnake...

Im still shaken up over this, i freakin hate snakes...

[cpdwane]

I'm pleased I live in a country like Britain where the most deadly things that could hurt me are the occasional adder, or possibly a weaver fish if I've gone to the beach (although i hear they are pretty nasty.)

[chamaeleo]

Had a similar encounter w a rattlesnake in Arizona...sat on a rock, heard some noise, something smacked my bootheel and I jumped away cursing. I was less than amused, that is, until my partially deaf geology prof came over and started smacking the rock with his hammer...insisting there was nothing beneath it (despite loud rattle / 15 students yelling at him to back the hell off)!

Never did see it, no idea how big/what species...

Of course, had he bit my ankle I'd have stood a much better chance at survival than in your case. Taipans are way serious bidness!

...I think Thema Devia might be more appropriate for this one.

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

Had a similar encounter w a rattlesnake in Arizona...sat on a rock, heard some noise, something smacked my bootheel and I jumped away cursing. I was less than amused, that is, until my partially deaf geology prof came over and started smacking the rock with his hammer...insisting there was nothing beneath it (despite loud rattle / 15 students yelling at him to back the hell off)!

Never did see it, no idea how big/what species...

Of course, had he bit my ankle I'd have stood a much better chance at survival than in your case. Taipans are way serious bidness!

...I think Thema Devia might be more appropriate for this one.

Western Diamondback Rattler. The most deadly snake venomouswise we have here in north america is the coral snake, as it's a cobra. Fortunately it is very difficult for them to penetrate the skin and they only live in arizona, texas, mississipi,loisiana, alabama, georgia, and florida. In SC we havent had one since the 90s, and it was accidentally shipped in with some... peaches i believe.

[Sevachenko]

Western Diamondback Rattler. The most deadly snake venomouswise we have here in north america is the coral snake, as it's a cobra. Fortunately it is very difficult for them to penetrate the skin and they only live in arizona, texas, mississipi,loisiana, alabama, georgia, and florida. In SC we havent had one since the 90s, and it was accidentally shipped in with some... peaches i believe.

Who would have thought a Georgia Peach could be fatal experience. .

[chamaeleo]

Western Diamondback Rattler. The most deadly snake venomouswise we have here in north america is the coral snake, as it's a cobra. Fortunately it is very difficult for them to penetrate the skin and they only live in arizona, texas, mississipi,loisiana, alabama, georgia, and florida. In SC we havent had one since the 90s, and it was accidentally shipped in with some... peaches i believe.

Impossible to say what species of rattler it was...Arizona hosts many varieties, and I doubt anybody can key out snakes by the rattle sound alone.

Coral snakes aren't cobras, but they are both colubrids. Also fortunate is that corals are shy and avoid contact. We've got em in SW NM, too.

[Lord Rahl]

My experience isn't from a predator or a "dangerous" animal but it was still an experience with wildlife that could have become dangerous.

When I still lived in Canada, my family went hiking in Wilcox Pass in Jasper National Park in Jasper, AB. It's a moderately difficult hike but a very beautiful one, especially when you reach the top and see the Athabasca Glacier and Columbia Ice Field across the valley. We were nearing the top of the hike where the terrain looks like this (actual Wilcox Pass photo),



So, we were hiking up there and saw some Big Horned Sheep, 5 or 6, maybe a mile away further up on the mountain. We thought little of it and then sat down to eat. As we were eating, we noticed that the sheep were steadily getting closer to us. After 30 minutes or so the sheep got close enough, perhaps 20 or 30 yards away, and that was close enough for us to very much take notice and actually move away from them. This was more about giving them space and letting them do their own thing instead of us being scared of them.

But then one of the sheep kept coming closer and closer to us in our direction instead of the rest of the little herd. Oh, and my family has pictures of all of this but I don't have them on my computer, which is a shame because the pictures are awesome. Anyway, my father had us keep moving away from this one sheep. It became obvious that this sheep was the alpha male of the group. He just kept coming closer and closer to us, getting about 10 yards from us at one point. This sheep wanted to get close to us. You could see it in his eyes. We sort of his behind a rock and my sister started crying.

That's when the alpha male sheep did something awesome. It climbed on top of a group of rocks that had a hiking sign on it, you know, one of these,



So, here we had a Big Horned Sheep standing on top of rocks next to a hiking sign. Then he bent down his head and started pressing his head against the sign. It was a weird sort of inadvertent symbolism, this sheep showing us that he was the big guy on the mountain instead of us. Anyway, he left after a couple of minutes and we continued our hike.

That story wasn't that exciting but it stands out in my memory. I've had numerous more "dangerous" encounters with brown bears in Alaska but for some reason those memories don't stand out.

[Elfdude]

When I was growing up we had hundreds of rattle snakes that liked to come and sun themselves on our porch. As kids we went rattlesnake stomping with long wooden sticks. Endless fun. Taipan's are hella scary though. At least with a rattlesnake you have a fair chance that you'll survive long enough to go to the hospital.

Austrailia is even more scary though. I don't understand how you guys live with so many deadly and painful and harmful creatures around. Bullet ants and giant wasps and snakes and jelly fish. It's amazing you guys still live down there.

[Barbarian Nobility]

I guess its conditioning, every Aussie kid knows not to leave their shoes outside in case when they put them on they get a nasty suprise, or to never walk through long grass when you can't see what your treading on or put your hands down holes where you cant see them. 'The Bushman' is the epitomy of Australian masculinity(along with the ANZACS) and an iconic image in the australian psyche, which is why (with the exception of inner-city Melbourne and Sydney dandy's) most Australian people love going outdoors and camping.

Still as a South Australian I draw the line when it comes to surfing

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

(South Australia and Western Australia have the second highest concentration of Great White Shark populations to South Africa)

and I don't know how those nut-case bastards from the Northern Territory go fishing, given most if not all river tributaries are inhabited by these

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Its all just part of Australian life. Personally, i don't know how people live in the United States with the insane ammount of firearms carried by the general populace???

[Elfdude]

Its all just part of Australian life. Personally, i don't know how people live in the United States with the insane ammount of firearms carried by the general populace???

Actually we don't really have many firearms carried by the general population. The swiss are better about that.

As far as guns go there's a lot of reasons:

Our country was found as a revolutionary country out of checks and balances. What balances a government when it's all under the influence of one party? The people. Essentially because people have weapons the government never will have any hope of turning into a burma.

Further as far as crime goes guns are extremely availible in the US, with mexico to the south and canada to the north our borders are amongst the easiest to smuggle stuff into. This means drugs, and guns both make up a huge black market in the US. Because of this criminals are likely to have weapons.

Obviously most criminals aren't murderers and they only use the guns as an incentive to comply without acting up. However when you're never sure if a weapon is being held by your victim it changes the game entirely. Especially considering if you point a loaded weapon at someone with intent to kill they have every right to shoot and kill you.

Unfortunately gun laws only take guns away from people who respect laws. With gangs that rival the police, drug lords that can pump in 10x the money that the US govt can there's no effective solution to keeping weapons out of people's hands. The next best solution is to give everyone a gun. This way at least the people with the guns can't be sure they can subjugate anyone off the street. Further this means that it's unlikely any foreign entity could ever take and hold America without the systematic butcher of all of her citizens.

For example there've been situations of people coming to public places with black market weapons intending to massacre people only to be stopped by a citizen with a concealed weapon's license. A massacre at virginia tech had a lot to do with the fact that the school was a no gun zone. It took too long for the 'good guys' to put down the bad guy because the bad guy was heavily armed.

It'd also be important to remember that when you eliminate gang on gang violence and suicide, gun violence in America isn't much greater than in countries that have eliminated guns all together.

[Barbarian Nobility]

Our country was found as a revolutionary country out of checks and balances. What balances a government when it's all under the influence of one party? The people. Essentially because people have weapons the government never will have any hope of turning into a burma.

Our country was founded as the ultimate penitentiary for Great Britain's overwhelmed, overburdened and cumbersome correctional system With natural flowing water a scarcity, a hostile indigenous population likely to kill you on the spot(and with good reason really), terrain and weather conditions that could easily kill, and obviously dangerous wildlife the likes of which Europeans had never seen before outside of Africa, it really was an inescapable prison. The first 'troopers' were actually obedient convicts! about three decades after this Australia became the dumping ground of Europe's extremists, in particular nationalist revolutionaries from Ireland and Marxists from central Europe. The gold rush of the 1850's changed all of this forever as Australia went from being a backward colony of ex-convicts and their descendents to a fully functioning and prosperous economy (my home state of south Australia was the only state founded by 'free' citizens). This fell at odds with the prevailing anti-government(read anti-British) public sentiment leading to our failed rebellion, the Eureka Stockade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Stockade for much the same reasons as what sparked the American revolution, namely over-burdensome taxes. However the anti-authoritarian fervour still remains deeply ingrained in Australian tradition, as a Correctional Officer myself, I can stand testament to its continued existance

[Jingles]

Its all just part of Australian life. Personally, i don't know how people live in the United States with the insane ammount of firearms carried by the general populace???

Funny thing is, Australia is one of few places I would have thought carrying a firearm would be an excellent idea. But if you can live with all these nasty predators without guns, then kudos to you!

[Niles Crane]

Austrailia is even more scary though. I don't understand how you guys live with so many deadly and painful and harmful creatures around. Bullet ants and giant wasps and snakes and jelly fish. It's amazing you guys still live down there.

Because most of these creatures live in the bush while most of the Australian population live in urban centres. Yeah, sure there is the occasional redback spider in one's backyard (I haven't seen one in years) but you would really have to go looking for them. I did a lot of camping in my youth through school and we never saw anything remotely dangerous. I think the only incident was when a group had to go hiking the morning after heavy rain and they encountered leeches.

[roy34543]

In australia if theres wildlife, theres a 99% chance it wants to kill you, and a 80% chance that it can .
Even the kaolas will probably try and fall on your head or something.

[Yoda Twin]

In australia if theres wildlife, theres a 99% chance it wants to kill you, and a 80% chance that it can .
Even the kaolas will probably try and fall on your head or something.

Though not as near dangerous our other wildlife, the bite of a kaola still freaking hurts and when they aren't drugged up on Eucolyptus, they're quite aggressive.
Our wildlife is what I love most about our country, keeps you on your feet and there's nothing better than a confrontation with a blue ringed octopus to stop you form pulling rocked up from the beach aimless.

[Barbarian Nobility]

In australia if theres wildlife, theres a 99% chance it wants to kill you, and a 80% chance that it can .
Even the kaolas will probably try and fall on your head or something.

Koala's are the violent drunkard of Australian wildlife have you ever heard those things growl? BTW IMO they would drill the absolute crap out of a large dog like a rotweiller, they would literally tear it to shreds. same goes for a wombat IMO

[hellheaven1987]

Koala's are the violent drunkard of Australian wildlife have you ever heard those things growl? BTW IMO they would drill the absolute crap out of a large dog like a rotweiller, they would literally tear it to shreds. same goes for a wombat IMO

You probably never saw a saltwater crocodile... I always wonder how many Japanese soldiers were eaten by those beasts when they tried to land on Singapore during WWII...

[Barbarian Nobility]

You probably never saw a saltwater crocodile... I always wonder how many Japanese soldiers were eaten by those beasts when they tried to land on Singapore during WWII...

Oh i've seen them, just in zoo's. Would love to go to Darwin and do the crocodile dive