coastal taipan distribution

[Jonno from ERD]

Hi Kupres, do you have photo's of it?

 

[PimmsPythons]

In the gladstone area,we turn up a few coastal tais each year. most of our local adults are very dark in colour while the young ones are lighter .they also seem to have populations in pockets and as stated earlier,also seems to be at the base of mountain ranges.Yarwin is a local hotspot where they are quite common and is at the base of Mt Larcome. the other hotspot is Turkey Beach ,where i'd go as far as saying that i have came across more taipans than eastern browns.there is a small mountain range there and even though we have found them on both sides of it ,they are more common on the coastal side.heres a couple photos of yarwin roadkill tais.i have some photos of turkey beach tais as well but they are under a different format and i cant post them.
cheers
simon

 

[Kupres]

Sorry Jono,,, I fall into you're category of untrustworthy reports... No pic... We (my wifey & i) used to go for walks down to the the dam from our house... & came across that one on the way down to & nearly at the dam...

Carpets, whips, green & brown tree snakes up at the house... EB's + 1 Tai in the grass & scrub on the way down the hill to the dam... Then plenty of RBBS around the dam edge..

 

[Jonno from ERD]

G'day Simon,

I'm going to be up that way next week for some training. Keen to go for a look? It'll be during the week unfortunately.

 

[waruikazi]

Do you think territory taipans would stick to the same rules Jonno?

A species will only occur in the correct habitat throughout its distribution. A lot of people will see a distribution map and assume that that particular species will occur everywhere within that area, when in actual fact, it will only occur in its preferred habitat.

Coastal Taipans prefer well drained, grassy slopes and never stray more than a few kilometres from the base of mountains. This is one of the reasons why they are quite common in cane fields - the cane is planted on the flats between mountains.

I am only making reference to what I consider confirmed sightings - either confirmed with a photograph, museum specimen, or by someone with considerable experience. There are lots of anecdotal reports of Taipans turning up all over the place, but a lot of it is wishful thinking rather more than anything.

 

[PimmsPythons]

G'day Simon,

I'm going to be up that way next week for some training. Keen to go for a look? It'll be during the week unfortunately.

through the week isn't great for me, but might be able to go for a drive one arvo after work and have a look around and point you in the right direction.
cheers
simon

 

[kawasakirider]

Hi, I just thought I'd add to this thread. Firstly I am in NO WAY educated in regards to snakes... I just bought two jungle python hatchlings for my GF and I, but that's about it, lol.

I have just moved to Ipswich from north of Gympie, a place called Glenwood.

People have said there are taipans out there and I believe them, because I *THINK* I have seen two first hand. The first time I saw a taipan, I was letting my dog out of the house onto the grass (she was elderly at the time) and I looked down and saw the snake not too far to my right on the verandah (the house is ground level, it's a concrete verandah).

The snake was about 7 feet long. I moved very quickly to pick up my dog and the snake lunged very quickly lol, I had no shoes on and I was terrified. My grandfather came to the flyscreen door and the snake had a go at the door, too.

It took off never to be seen again. Its head was a different shape to a browns, slightly.

The second instance where I think I saw one, I saw a baby. I didn't realise it was a taipan until now, as I was reading this thread I clicked on a taipan for sale thread at the bottom of the page, and noticed a juvenile taipan that had a lighter coloured head.

Well, one afternoon I was shaping a motocross jump with a mate, and a snake came out of the ground. Only tiny, about a foot and a half long. It had a brown body and an ORANGE head. I just assumed it was a brown because I know Taipans are rare.

Anyway, this snake had the same juvenile markings as the one in the for sale thread, and I've been looking up some pics of baby browns and none have an orange head.

What do you guys think about this? I could be wrong (and I probably am, as I said I have no snake experience), but they are meant to be in the area. Both of these instances happened around 2007. The first one was october 2007 OR 2006, with the large snake. Couldn't tell you the second one. I haven't seen many snakes since. My dogs have killed a baby and I think it's a brown. I still have it in a bottle of metho. It doesn't have an orange head, just a slightly lighter head. They also killed another one but I wasn't there to see it. I saw a brown coloured snake on the road up there within the last few months, but it took off before I got close enough.

Regards,

Trent

 

[spotlight]

the main problem i find is even so called experts mis-identify taipans, so its so hard to take snake removal records as a true indication of locality

 

[Jonno from ERD]

That's very true Spotlight. There's a certain Sunshine Coast snake catcher who likes to drum up stories about how many Coastal Taipans he catches...

 

[kawasakirider]

Yeah no dramas guys, I am in no way experienced, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But if there was a small brown bodied snake, with an orange head, does that point more toward a taipan or a brown snake?

 

[Greenmad]

That's very true Spotlight. There's a certain Sunshine Coast snake catcher who likes to drum up stories about how many Coastal Taipans he catches...

jonno you sound a little bitter lol