# Brown snakes on Gold Coast



## BredliFreak (Oct 17, 2015)

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/na...st-popular-beach/story-fnii5v70-1227570292108

Good read, showing how stupid even our own who call themselves "herpers". just to let all gold-coasters know about this. Herping anyone?
Bredli


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## Prof_Moreliarty (Oct 17, 2015)

Have a look at all the pearls of wisdom in the comment section such as 

"So, just when does someone decide to have the snakes moved to different place?? Seems ludicrous that we know there is an issue but nothing is done!!!"

"the only good snake is a dead snake"


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## Ironmind91 (Oct 17, 2015)

"The only good snake is a dead snake" is what my moron of a boss said when we found a baby brown at work on Tuesday. Lucky for the snake I beat him to it and moved him before he came back with a shovel. Let's just say I was in a pretty fowl mood the rest of the day.. Idiot. The little guy wouldn't have been a year old.


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## Bluetongue1 (Oct 17, 2015)

Yet another flagrante example of irresponsible sensationalism to sell copy. Some members of the media in this country have a lot to answer for... 

Use of the word “infested” in the title is an absolute furphy. Who amongst the herping community, in our thousands upon thousands of hours of diligent scouring of potential snake habitats, can honestly say they have ever come across a population of snakes that warranted being described as an infestation? It happens so incredibly rarely, and NEVER at a beach! 

As for Andy Kington (of Pommie Pythons), he seems to believe that our snakes are social animals and that like to congregate at the beach. I think he might be confusing Aussie surfers with Aussie snakes! 

The writer quotes snake catcher Tony Harrison as making a similar claim, saying “the beach is highly populated with snakes.” What the??? The dune grasslands behind a beach may support a resident population of browns but as any field experienced herper knows, that certainly does not qualify for the descriptor “highly populated”. 

They quote Harrison as stating: “If I’m totally honest, I’m surprised it’s taken this long for it to happen there”, and then saying “it was more likely a freak accident in which the reptile had been disturbed or had felt threatened for some reason”. These two statements are clearly not compatible. One is left to wonder what qualifying comments of Tony were omitted if he did utter the first statement. Looks suspiciously like a case of quoting something out of context in order to sensationalise it.

One aspect of this report I seriously question is the accuracy of the statement that: “Paramedics injected the 31-year-old with anti-venom after the reptile latched on to his leg while he was on the beach about 12.50pm.” There are strict protocols governing the use of anti-venom. It is NEVER administered at the scene by paramedics, for a number of important reasons. It is only administered once it is apparent that systemic envenomation has actually taken place, and only then where there are emergency medical facilities and expertise available to cope with the potential of a severe allergic reaction that can result from administration of the horse serum in which the anti-toxins are contained. This reaction, although relatively rare, can, in many cases, be more life-threatening than the results of a bite from a venomous snake. IMO just one more massive piece of BS to misinform the general public – all to sell copy. Pathetic!

If the author and publisher were serious about accurate reporting and minimising harm in potential future incidents, then they would have talked about the application of pressure-immobilisation first aid, why it works and why it is important to do quickly in order to slow venom transfer to the blood circulation (allowing time for appropriate medical intervention to be sought and accessed). 

Reporters that write this crap, and editors that approve it for publication, should be held accountable for endangering public health through their blatant misinformation in the name of profits.


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## RoryBreaker (Oct 18, 2015)

Brown snakes in the dunes along the coast is old news. 

I remember seeing news articles about them back in the nineties. Geez even some nanny state like councils have even bothered to put up warming signs.

EBs have done well out of human modified environments, (eg rock walls, walkway deckings ), no vehicular traffic, then we add mice and rats to the equation.....and ta da, a healthy brown population.

The media has been "Irwinised" when it comes to the reporting of snakes.


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## BredliFreak (Oct 18, 2015)

The media will always have an uneducated biased opinion about everything, lying just to get their views up. Like GameTheory's "Leave Pewdiepie alone" talking about how they oppose your views to get more views, or that part on good morning america when they said that the LEGAL venomous snake trade was black-market business where no qualification or experience is needed, which in most cases isn't true. Maybe one day we could get some educated, unbiased truthful news about anything, but I doubt it.

Bredli


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## briansworms (Oct 18, 2015)

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.


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## Bluetongue1 (Oct 19, 2015)

[MENTION=39688]briansworms[/MENTION]: You hit the nail on the head there – they are storytelling instead of reporting. So often it is apparent that they just make up the details to suit themselves. Yet it is not only what they do print that I find disappointing. It is also what they don’t say.

The media are in a unique position to educate people about snakes. Yet they consistently fail to do so. They should be preaching awareness and the exercising of commonsense. Snakes are active at this time of year, regardless of the reasons, so if you are entering potential snake habitat then you either need to have clear vision of where you are walking or dress appropriately. And perhaps the most powerful message they could get across is actually remarkably simple... 

Leave snakes alone and they will leave you alone!


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## alexbee (Oct 19, 2015)

If that was me id be so angry at the thought that id get revenge on my boss.... sign him up to swingers clubs or something haha



Ironmind91 said:


> "The only good snake is a dead snake" is what my moron of a boss said when we found a baby brown at work on Tuesday. Lucky for the snake I beat him to it and moved him before he came back with a shovel. Let's just say I was in a pretty fowl mood the rest of the day.. Idiot. The little guy wouldn't have been a year old.


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## Ironmind91 (Oct 19, 2015)

alexbee said:


> If that was me id be so angry at the thought that id get revenge on my boss.... sign him up to swingers clubs or something haha



Hahaha it's okay I quit instead so that was satisfying enough.


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## TrueBlue (Oct 19, 2015)

It is very true that the beach fronts in se qld hold big numbers of browns, they are every where, very common both on the sunshine coast and the gold coast. It has been this way for years. There are more browns on the beach front in these areas than any where else I know in the country.


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## GBWhite (Oct 19, 2015)

TrueBlue said:


> It is very true that the beach fronts in se qld hold big numbers of browns, they are every where, very common both on the sunshine coast and the gold coast. It has been this way for years. There are more browns on the beach front in these areas than any where else I know in the country.



You need to get out and about a bit more...hahaha. I know plenty of places other that the Gold and Sunshine coasts where brown numbers are rather high.


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## briansworms (Oct 19, 2015)

Probably more people bitten trying to catch the snake than accidently stepping on one. People are not on the menu. A snake has the right to defend itself. As with any creature.


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## pythoninfinite (Oct 19, 2015)

The WA equivalents, Dugites and Western Browns, are likewise extremely common in the dune country along WA beaches, from the far south coast right up through the Pilbara, and like most Brown Snakes, they thrive in urban coastal areas, even around the Perth metropolitan area.

Jamie


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## TrueBlue (Oct 19, 2015)

I have been out and about plenty GBWhite, but never seen the constant year round numbers that I see on the coastal fringe along the sunshine coast. They are every where but no one ever gets bitten, well very rarely.


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## cement (Oct 19, 2015)

Yeah there on the beaches all the way up the east coast. Dry, sandy soils..... there favourite habitat.

To be honest I was pretty amazed that someone got bitten at surfers. I used to live there, its a freakin concrete jungle, maybe at Main beach or up further on the spit where there (well USED to be some scrub and dunes), but surfers??? [email protected]#T aye!


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## Newhere (Oct 19, 2015)

Yea but down towards Broadbeach the dunes get pretty thick and dense, you even get homeless people camping/ living in them, it's unbelievable.

Also it's amazing where you find these creatures living in the city, I found a bluey living in a tiny garden bed on the median strip of the gold coast highway not too long ago.


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## kingofnobbys (Oct 20, 2015)

Unfortunately , complaining about bad info in the media about snakes in the media on here is pretty pointless , most of us are aware of snakes and act sensibly when we encounter one (admire it from a safe distance and avoid interfering with it or harming / scaring it, and then when we have our photos (taken from a safe distance) we let leave it to continue doing what was doing when we happened across it (preferably as stress free snake who isn't likely to tag the next "intelligent" biped it comes across).

Letters to the editor of the papers and to the producers of the news programs might be more effective at getting the RIGHT message across don't you think.

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pythoninfinite said:


> The WA equivalents, Dugites and Western Browns, are likewise extremely common in the dune country along WA beaches, from the far south coast right up through the Pilbara, and like most Brown Snakes, they thrive in urban coastal areas, even around the Perth metropolitan area.
> 
> Jamie



Lots of (4 legged) rats in builtup areas. If there are prey animals about there will be snakes who will be happy to hunt them for food. The snakes belong there, not the idiot tourists and not cretins who call themselves journalists. Like someone already said, watch where you are stepping (that's why you have 2 eyes and a brain between those ears), and if the grass is long dress appropriately (there might be a snake living in there somewhere, and if you step on it, it can't say "ouch !").


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