Utilising their outstanding camouflage abilities, death adders will lie in wait for any unsuspecting prey that passes by, such as mammals, birds and reptiles. By wiggling the end of their tail, they entice prey in close enough for their rapid strike, the fastest of any Australian snake!
After the king cobra, the black mamba is the longest venomous snake in the world. It is also the fastest-moving snake in the world, reaching up to 23km/h.
They found that all snakes could accelerate at more than 160 metres per second squared (ms−2) and reach speeds approaching 3 metres per second. This enables the animals to cover average distances of 13.6–16.7 centimetres in 66–74 milliseconds.
Introducing the most venomous snake in the world and epic predator of the Australian outback! The inland taipan is otherwise known as the fierce snake or small scaled snake.
Strike Speed: 100 milliseconds
The common death adder has the longest fangs of any venomous Australian snake.
Over distance they slow down to 7 MPH (12 KPH). However, the average human run speed over distance is 6 MPH (10 KPH). Thus, you cant outrun a Black Mamba. Still, Black Mambas are extremely shy and will do everything they can to avoid people.
Rule Number 1: Don't Try To Outrun A Snake
Not because your kid can't — they probably could! The very fastest snake, the Black Mamba, can slither at about 12 MPH, and a truly scared human (even one with short legs) could probably exceed that.
Mambas are adept at climbing and will often travel through the tree canopy undetected.
However, the worlds fastest snake is probably the Black Mamba, which has been timed at just over 11 kilometres per hour - which is not much faster than your average walking speed of 8 kph. But there is a snake which can keep up with a racehorse.
Brown snakes hunt by actively looking for prey and searching in likely hiding places. They have good eyesight and once prey is detected they will give chase and subdue the prey using both venom and constriction.
1. Green Tree Snake (Dendrelaphis punculata) – this non-venomous snake is quite commonplace in Australia, and can be found in areas where there is thick vegetation.
Inland taipans have the most powerful venom on Earth. The inland taipan is known for being among the most venomous snakes in the world. A maximum dose of its venom is about 110mg from a single bite, and that is enough to kill 289 people and over 1 million mice.
The snake is faster than you are. Don't try to outrun it.
Later that night, when Laita began reviewing the photos he had taken during the shoot, he found that he had snapped a shot at the exact moment the snake sank its fangs into his leg. Surviving a black mamba bite without treatment is so rare that Laita's story is now mentioned in Wikipedia's “black mamba” article.
Adult mambas have few natural predators aside from birds of prey. Brown snake eagles are verified predators of adult black mambas, of up to at least 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in). Other eagles known to hunt or at least consume grown black mambas include tawny eagles and martial eagles.
Death adder venom contains a highly dangerous neurotoxin that can cause human death six hours after the initial bite, while smaller mammals such as dogs experience worse reactions and on average live only 20 minutes after the initial bite.
In data shared with 9news.com.au, Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) revealed more than 800 people have been bitten by snakes in the state each year from 2020-2022.
The black mamba, for example, injects up to 12 times the lethal dose for humans in each bite and may bite as many as 12 times in a single attack. This mamba has the fastest-acting venom of any snake, but humans are much larger than its usual prey so it still takes 20 minutes for you to die.
The killer of the most people
The saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) may be the deadliest of all snakes, since scientists believe it to be responsible for more human deaths than all other snake species combined.
Even more impressive, Australia is home to 20 of the 25 most venomous snakes in the world, including all of the top 11.