Snake toxitity is graded on a scale whereby the central point is the Indian Cobra at "1". All snakes are graded as less toxic, or more toxic.
The most toxic US snake according to the head toxicologist at Taronga Park Zoo, who graciously provided lectures on the subject to SCI, is the diamond back rattlesnake which has a rating of .9. He is also more deadly because he has longer fangs and is able to pump in volumes of venom, intensifying the danger.
The worst of the Aussie mongrels is the Inland Taipan, also called the Fierce Snake. It has a rating of 49. Almost 50 times more toxic that the Indian Cobra.
Nasty stuff. Because of Australia's isolation, the snakes are very primative and have not evolved as other world snakes, especially in the fangs which are much shorter than many new world snakes and are not hypodermic.
So said the number 1 expert in the country. We did not break the conversation down into individual snakes other than the species we were most likely to encounter which was the browns and blacks, of which a King Brown, also known as a Mulga snake, is actually a Black snake so Anti venom for a brown snake, will not work.
The other surprise during the lectures was that Anti Nenom does not cure you of snake bite, it only deactivates it. Another snake bite can reactivate the original venom.
Becuase of the severity of the venom, the short fangs often only pierce your jeans and venom can sometimes be seen running down your pants leg. This also means that any scratch is still a snake bite. Any skin broken is also classified as a bite as it doesn't take much of a drop to do the job.
Although Mamba's were discussed by comparrison, my concentration was obviously towards local fauna so I cannot add more to it.
When truth is ignored, it does not change an untruth from remaining a lie.
