Inland taipan

Identification

The inland taipan is a medium to large snake with a robust build and a deep, rectangular head¹. Its back ranges from pale fawn to yellowish-brown or dark brown, and the head and neck are often several shades darker than the body¹. Many back scales have a blackish edge, which together form a broken herringbone pattern, and the belly is yellowish with orange blotches¹. Adults average about 2 m long, and the longest recorded total length is 2.5 m¹.

It was first described in 1879 in the brown snake genus Diemenia and has since been placed in several other genera before Oxyuranus^1,2. Its name means “small-scaled”².

Distribution

The inland taipan is found only in Australia. It lives mainly in the Channel Country of south-western Queensland and north-eastern South Australia¹.

There are two old records further south-east: the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers in north-western Victoria (1879) and “Fort Bourke” in New South Wales (1882). The species has not been collected in either state since then¹. The Reptile Database describes it as rare².

Habitat

This snake lives on the deep cracking-clay and cracking-loam soils of inland floodplains. It also uses nearby gibber (stony) plains, dunes and rocky outcrops where there is cover¹.

The plants in these areas are usually sparse, mostly saltbush-family shrubs, lignum and the odd eucalypt along water channels¹. The snakes shelter in deep soil cracks, crevices and the burrows of mammals¹.

Behaviour

The inland taipan is active above ground by day, mostly in the first half of the morning, when it basks and hunts near soil cracks and burrows before retreating to shelter. In cooler weather it may also be active in the afternoon¹. Its colour changes with the seasons: it becomes darker in winter, which probably helps it warm up quickly, and paler in summer¹.

Despite the name “fierce snake”, it is shy and rarely seen, partly because it lives in remote areas¹. If provoked, it first raises its forebody in a low S-shaped curve as a warning, and may then strike¹.

Diet

In the wild the inland taipan seems to eat only small to medium-sized mammals, especially the long-haired rat, as well as introduced house mice and small marsupials called dasyurids¹. It usually corners prey in a burrow or soil crack and bites it several times in quick succession¹.

Long-haired rats boom in good seasons and almost vanish in droughts, so the snakes grow fat when rats are plentiful and live on stored fat when they are scarce¹.

Reproduction

The inland taipan lays eggs². Male combat and mating have been seen in late winter, and females carrying eggs are found by mid-spring¹.

Clutches contain 11 to 20 eggs, with 16 on average. The eggs take 9 to 11 weeks to hatch at 27–30 °C, and the hatchlings are about 47 cm long¹. In captivity, a female can lay two clutches in one breeding season¹.

Venom and medical significance

In laboratory tests on mice, inland taipan venom is rated the most toxic of all snake venoms¹. It is strongly neurotoxic and contains an enzyme (hyaluronidase) that helps it spread through the body¹. It also contains three-finger toxins, phospholipase A2 toxins and prothrombin activators, which affect nerves, muscles and blood clotting³. Reported effects include headache, vomiting, collapse, paralysis and serious clotting problems^1,4.

Bites are very rare: only about 12 cases have been formally documented⁴. The WHO places it in Category 2 in Australia, a group that includes highly venomous snakes that bite people less often, for example because they live far from large populations⁵. People who received prompt hospital treatment have survived¹. Anyone bitten must seek medical care immediately.

Conservation

The IUCN Red List classifies the inland taipan as Least Concern, based on an assessment published in 2018⁶. Its remote habitat means people rarely come across it¹.

It has not been recorded in Victoria or New South Wales since the 1880s, and the Australian Museum lists it as presumed extinct in those two states¹.

Similar species

Within its own range, the inland taipan can be confused with brown snakes, such as the western and eastern brown snakes¹. The eastern brown snake, for example, has a slender to moderate build, a smallish head barely distinct from the neck and fairly even colouring⁷. The inland taipan is more robust, with a deep rectangular head, a head and neck often darker than the body, and a herringbone pattern of dark scale edges¹.

These features are not a safe basis for handling any snake. Brown snakes are also dangerously venomous⁵, so keep away from all of them.

In captivity

Inland taipans are kept in some educational reptile exhibits and by specialist keepers, and many experienced keepers describe them as placid^1,4. Even so, bites in captivity can cause serious envenoming. In one recent case, a keeper at a public reptile exhibit in Florida, USA, was bitten during routine care and needed hospital treatment with antivenom⁴. It is not a suitable pet.