Proud of world-class poisonous behaviour

BEST-selling author Bill Bryson wrote in his hugely popular book on Australia that there are more things here that will kill you than anywhere else.

He then told readers of his book, curiously titled Down Under when sold here and In a Sunburned Country elsewhere in the world, that the world's 10 most poisonous snakes live in Australia, and that five other creatures (the funnel-web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick and stonefish) are the most lethal of their type in the world. Most Australians, let alone tourists, are unlikely to ever be unlucky enough to meet a blue-ringed octopus, box jellyfish or stonefish, but the odds of them meeting a funnel-web or paraly- sis tick are quite high, certainly a lot better than winning Oz Lotto, along the east coast. As summer encourages even the most sedentary to the bushier beauty spots, nature has been asserting herself to remind us that Bryson is a non-fiction writer. Last week an unfamiliar snake turned up in the bathroom of a local cottage. After it had been put back in the bush, Taronga Zoo's snake team identified it from a photograph as a brown tree snake (boiga irregularis). "You're actually quite lucky to find one down there (in the Ku-Ring-Gai National Park) as they are not very common around Sydney, which is at the far south of their distribution," says Michael McFadden, unit supervisor of the herpetofauna division. "They are a mildly venomous colubrid snake, meaning that they have fangs in the rear of their mouth, rather than in the front like the vast majority of our venomous snakes. "As they are venomous you should not attempt to handle these, however, as the venom is fairly weak and their fangs are positioned far back in the mouth, they aren't considered a threat to humans." Unit manager Pete Harlow said he had never heard of anyone being "envenomated" (which is a PhD's $50 word for being bitten by a venomous snake), but added, "if you stir it up enough it will bite you (they are a pretty cranky snake), but the rear fangs mean it has to hold on and chew to get the back fangs into you!. "So unless you are a small lizard, mouse or bird in the nest (its main prey items), you have nothing to worry about. "And the venom is very weak, as it is a colubrid snake (garter snake family) not one of the more toxic Australian front-fanged elapid snakes (taipan and brown snake family)." I was thinking that I preferred luck to reveal itself via Lotto, and that any luck may be better than none at all, when Michael Doherty, who co-manages the local Morning Bay Youth Hotel with Sarah Polomka, sent a neighbour a photo he had taken of a diamond python (morelia spilota spilota) which had apparently treated itself to a rock wallaby (petrogale inornata) joey for Christmas. Anyway, the 2m reptile was trying to look inconspicuous as it digested its large repast and there was a female wallaby which had been seen frolicking with its joey just before Christmas looking forlorn and joey-less just before New Year's Eve. Some of Doherty's guests, who generally enjoy spending a few days without television while they rediscover the sounds of the bush and even experiment with the ancient art of conversation also seemed a little disconsolate, but perhaps they didn't know how lucky they were to spot the torpid diner. Doherty said diamond pythons feel quite vulnerable while they waiting for their stomachs to settle, a little anxious about their sudden weight gain, perhaps, and that when a large lace monitor (varanus varius) approached, the python nipped the intruder on its neck and sent it racing back into the spotted gums (eucalyptus maculata). All the communities around Pittwater have their own stories about the small dogs which have met their end courtesy of a local lace monitor or python but this snake looked as could if it could have polished some of the newer children in the district. As it happens, it is not the most dangerous thing around, that distinction is probably earned by the paralysis tick (ixodes holocyclus) which can literally kill a brown dog and does so with regularity. The three principal hospitals in the Northern Beaches area, Manly, Mona Vale and the Royal North Shore are all used to dealing with tick bites, as is every veterinarian. Further, to the consternation of real estate vendors trying to coax an extra million or five from Palm Beach wannabes, the ticks seem to be winning. Bill Conroy of Avalon is the man to talk to about ticks – the tickspert. He says the wily bludgers have eight or so toxins in their venom and if one fails to make you sick, the next probably will. There is something in their venom range that will get you. What's more, after a tick bite, some people tend to develop allergies. In the case of two women I know, the allergy has been to red meat. They are now on fish and poultry diets as red meat affects them in a manner similar to the anaphylactic shock experienced by people who are allergic to peanuts. It sounds so creepy that one could be forgiven for opting to stay home over the holidays.