[him a layin]

lovely creatures! <3

[GlennF]

lovely creatures! <3

yep, bunyip's can be annoying little buggers though, worse than bandicoots

[GlennF]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-ringed_octopus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_brown_snake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip

Neither the King Brown nor the Redback are particularly deadly by Aussie standards.  Redbacks are unlikely to kill a healthy adult human especially if you get to hospital in time they might make you a bit crook though. (in contrast to the Sydney Funnel Web which really is quite dangerous and needs to be treated with respect)

But yeah we do have a couple of venomous snakes - as with the Funnel Web,  you just have to learn to treat them with respect.

The table below gives the top 25 species in order, their LD50, and their distribution. Of the top 25 there are actually five that are NOT Australian.  Note that the North American Rattle Snake make the list at number 23 slotting in between those old Aussie favorites,  the Small Eye Snake and the  Black Whip Snake.

Note that the various Taipans and Tiger Snakes are relatively rare -  but No. 2 on the list, the Eastern Brown, is relatively common and quite aggressive.

Facts and Figures: World's Most Venomous Snakes

http://www.avru.org/?q=general%2Fgeneral_mostvenom.html

Which snake species is the most venomous depends on the measure used. The average or the maximum venom yield from milking could be suggested, but these measures can be criticised as not reflecting the impact of a real bite. The measure generally acknowledged as best reflecting how dangerous a snake's venom is is that of LD50. The lower this number, the less venom is required to cause death. By that measure, the most venomous snake in the world is Australia's inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus).



1.   Inland taipan      0.025      Australia
2.   Eastern brown snake   0.053      Australia
3.   Coastal taipan      0.099      Australia
4.   Tiger snake      0.118      Australia
5.   Black tiger snake   0.131      Australia
6.   Beaked sea snake   0.164      Australia
7.   Black tiger snake    0.194 - 0.338   Australia
8.   Death adder      0.400      Australia
9.   Gwardar         0.473      Australia
10.   Spotted brown snake   0.360       Australia
11.   Australian copperhead0.560      Australia
12.   Cobra         0.565      Asia
13.   Dugite         0.660      Australia
14.   Papuan black snake   1.09         New Guinea
15.   Stephens' banded snake   1.36      Australia
16.   Rough scaled snake   1.36         Australia
17.   King cobra         1.80         Asia
18.   Blue-bellied black snake   2.13      Australia
19.   Collett's snake      2.38         Australia
20.   Mulga snake      2.38         Australia
21.   Red-bellied black snake   2.52      Australia
22.   Small eyed snake   2.67         Australia
23.   Eastern diamond-backed rattlesnake   11.4   North America
24.   Black whipsnake   >14.2      Australia
25.   Fer-de-lance   >27.8         South America

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[gizzo]

Generally speaking the locals are well aware of the nature of the wildlife and do not get bitten.  Even drunken yobbo Aussies have more sense than to poke sticks at an Eastern brown or try and catch a Funnel Web.

It is tourists that go swimming in croc infested waterways or think that koalas are cute cuddly things to pick up and cuddle, or randomly pick up some pretty purple blue aquatic critter because they look colorful or worse randomly pick up rubbish on the ground without checking for spiders and snakes.

Haha there's always a bogan or 2 each year gets bitten by a tiger snake at the river. They (the bogan) see the snake on the riverbank, or swimming across the river and they try to shoo it away instead of leaving it alone.
 I accidentally chopped one that was swimming when I ran over it on my slalom ski.
My mate got bitten by a death adder when he was mowing the lawn. Thought it was a tree branch and threw it away. He nearly died and spent almost a year in hospital.

Everyone knows that drop bears are the worst, though.

[Richard230]

Wow! Tough crowd. Those snakes and spiders must have evolved by needing to be so poisonous. It makes me wonder why they had to be so nasty?  Something even worse must have been after them for dinner.    A T-Rex maybe? 

[GlennF]

There was mega-fauna but the indigenous first Australian population sort of wiped those out long ago.

[Richard230]

There was mega-fauna but the indigenous first Australian population sort of wiped those out long ago.

I guess those guys were even tougher.

[gizzo]

I guess those guys were even tougher.

Nothing a few western diet based diseases couldn't handle.

 

[him a layin]

20 of the top 25, and all of the top 10. o. kay.

i grew up in central florida where we have all 4 varieties of poisonous snake, though the copperhead and coral are rather rare. waded barefoot up and down the lakeshore, never had a problem. swam in lakes with alligators, which are not aggressive as alligators. you learn what to look for, and not to push your luck. the real threat is other humans.

[him a layin]

here's the loading mechanism for the sharps carbine (lightly modded), an early single-shot breech-loader. also known as a "paper-cutter" it came in both rifle and carbine versions. the operator would lower the loading lever to open the breech, inserting a paper cartridge containing ~50 grains of black powder and a .52 cal bullet. closing the breech would cut off the rear of the cartridge (hence the name), exposing the powder. ignition was via a percussion cap. berdan's shapshooters (among others) carried the rifle and the carbine was popular with cavalry and artillerists. metallic cartridges became available soon after the war, which sharps accommodated by the addition of an extractor.

[him a layin]

here's the infantry rifle (armi sport) and carbine(IAB). both made in italy.

[Leofric]

20 of the top 25, and all of the top 10. o. kay.

Yes, makes things look pretty dangerous to me.

[him a layin]

Yes, makes things look pretty dangerous to me.

and not just snakes. there's the platypus, so cuddly-looking with its beady eyes, duckbill and pouch, but the poison claws, no thanks.

[him a layin]

US model 1861 Springfield rifled musket. a percussion-fired muzzle-loader, it shot .58 cal hollow based minie' bullets. standard federal issue during the "recent unpleasantness", replaced the similar paper-tape primed model 1855. confederates started the war with civilian arms brought from home, or guns seized from federal arsenals, which were eventually replaced by the similar austrian lorenz or british enfield rifles. a trained soldier could load and fire 3 aimed shots a minute. based on design elements taken from the enfield, the '61 was updated but never entirely replaced by the easier-to-maintain model '63

[Brian10x]

US model 1861 Springfield rifled musket. a percussion-fired muzzle-loader, it shot .58 cal hollow based minie' bullets. standard federal issue during the "recent unpleasantness", replaced the similar paper-tape primed model 1855. confederates started the war with civilian arms brought from home, or guns seized from federal arsenals, which were eventually replaced by the similar austrian lorenz or british enfield rifles. a trained soldier could load and fire 3 aimed shots a minute. based on design elements taken from the enfield, the '61 was updated but never entirely replaced by the easier-to-maintain model '63

But, but, that's a bad assault rifle!  At least it was back then. And before then, we had assault knives, assault rocks.


https://i.imgur.com/IOcxsxG.jpg[/img]]