toxinologist
Active Member
Taipan records in SE Queensland
Hi all,
It amazes me no end that every time a taipan is reported in SE Queensland, someone has to leap up and declare it a range extension or a translocation, when the reality is that Oxyuranus scutellatus has a well documented range extending as far south as Grafton in northern NSW, and even a cursory web search would say so.
Pullen Vale is certainly perhaps the closest notified record to Ipswich, but it is hardly a surprise. Taipans have been recorded within a kilometre or two of Muirlea (QMJ38534 and QMJ27314) which is a mere 20 km or so west of Pullen Vale. Likewise there are specimens from the Samford area which only 15 km to the north of Pullen Vale (QJM57251, QMJ62961 and QMJ45861), and from just north of Fernvale (QMJ51720) about 23 km NW of Pullen Vale.
Rather than listing extensive locality data here, I have taken the easy way out and have plotted the Queensland Museum's records of this species in SE Queensland (south of Maryborough) on a map for people to see, along with the Museum's accession numbers for each specimen.
In addition to these records there have been a number of others.
Richard Jackson from Australia Zoo has collected a couple of taipans on the northern side of Brisbane and in the Sunshine coast if my memory serves me right, and I think Joe Sambono has as well.
The reality is taipans are a long-established component of the herpetofauna in savanna woodlands and other suitable habitats right down the Queensland coast and on into NSW. They are not commonly seen, mostly because they actively avoid human contact (if they didn't people would be getting nailed by them very regularly throughout their range, when in fact the opposite is what really happens - bites are rare), quietly disappearing often long before anyone gets close enough to see them. Nevertheless they are there, and do get vouchered to collections such as the QM from time to time.
Perhaps it would be worthwhile for someone to look more closely at snakebite in pets than in humans to get a better idea of just how often taipans are coming into contact with companion animals. The vet on the Channel 7 video mentions 4 cases from just the one vet surgery ... so it follows that if other surgeries see the same sort of number of cases, then taipans are perhaps indeed more common that most SE Queenslanders think.
What is noteworthy is that the QM has had nearly as many taipan specimens from SE Queensland over the past 65 years as it has had specimens from FNQ, where the snake is supposed to be more common.
Cheers
David
Hi all,
It amazes me no end that every time a taipan is reported in SE Queensland, someone has to leap up and declare it a range extension or a translocation, when the reality is that Oxyuranus scutellatus has a well documented range extending as far south as Grafton in northern NSW, and even a cursory web search would say so.
Pullen Vale is certainly perhaps the closest notified record to Ipswich, but it is hardly a surprise. Taipans have been recorded within a kilometre or two of Muirlea (QMJ38534 and QMJ27314) which is a mere 20 km or so west of Pullen Vale. Likewise there are specimens from the Samford area which only 15 km to the north of Pullen Vale (QJM57251, QMJ62961 and QMJ45861), and from just north of Fernvale (QMJ51720) about 23 km NW of Pullen Vale.
Rather than listing extensive locality data here, I have taken the easy way out and have plotted the Queensland Museum's records of this species in SE Queensland (south of Maryborough) on a map for people to see, along with the Museum's accession numbers for each specimen.
In addition to these records there have been a number of others.
Richard Jackson from Australia Zoo has collected a couple of taipans on the northern side of Brisbane and in the Sunshine coast if my memory serves me right, and I think Joe Sambono has as well.
The reality is taipans are a long-established component of the herpetofauna in savanna woodlands and other suitable habitats right down the Queensland coast and on into NSW. They are not commonly seen, mostly because they actively avoid human contact (if they didn't people would be getting nailed by them very regularly throughout their range, when in fact the opposite is what really happens - bites are rare), quietly disappearing often long before anyone gets close enough to see them. Nevertheless they are there, and do get vouchered to collections such as the QM from time to time.
Perhaps it would be worthwhile for someone to look more closely at snakebite in pets than in humans to get a better idea of just how often taipans are coming into contact with companion animals. The vet on the Channel 7 video mentions 4 cases from just the one vet surgery ... so it follows that if other surgeries see the same sort of number of cases, then taipans are perhaps indeed more common that most SE Queenslanders think.
What is noteworthy is that the QM has had nearly as many taipan specimens from SE Queensland over the past 65 years as it has had specimens from FNQ, where the snake is supposed to be more common.
Cheers
David
