The world's most venomous land snake, an elusive elapid of the cracked clay plains of central Australia.
Description
The inland taipan is a sleek elapid usually 1.8 to 2.5 m long, with a body that shifts colour seasonally — pale tan in summer to almost black in winter to aid thermoregulation. The head is glossy black and the eyes have orange-brown irises with round pupils.
Behavior
A specialist predator of plague-prone long-haired rats, the inland taipan delivers multiple rapid bites to subdue prey safely. Drop for drop, its venom is the most toxic of any land snake, yet there has never been a confirmed human fatality from its bite, because the species is extremely shy and remote.
Range
Restricted to the cracking-clay floodplains of the Channel Country in far western Queensland and adjacent northeast South Australia. Its range expands and contracts dramatically with boom-bust cycles in rat populations.
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Inland Taipan starts with I and ends with N. Browse other snakes along the same letter.
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