My Grandfather used to work in the Forestry Department at Glass House mountains in Queensland, Australia. He regularly caught poisonous snakes (Taipans, Death Adders, Browns, etcetera) to send to the Serum Laboratories. He would bag the snakes up in hessian bags, and put them in a box on the train, which would the be collected at a southern railway Station by the Laboratory Staff. He would mark on the box, fragile, Danger and handle with care. That was until some new railway station crew arrived, they questioned my grandfather on what was in the boxes, and when he openly told them that they were snakes, they totally refused to let the boxes come aboard. Well, as the boxes were sitting on the platform my grandfather , re-adjusted his pipe to the corner of his mouth, and started whistling casually as he opened up one box, and retrieved the first sack from it and started opening the it up. Well the station crew started to scream in fear, asking what the hell he was doing? My grandfather responded, "if you are not taking them, I might as well let em go".
It's amazing how quickly the station crew agreed to take the boxes on board.
The largest death adder that I have seen came from Glass House mountains, it measured approximately 4 foot, my grandfathers forestry colleague caught it, and he still had it preserved in a large glass container in formalin, just in case nobody believed the measurements. Death adders are usually small things, but deadly. It must have been a freak of nature, just like the odd giant human.
Talking about freaks of nature, when my grandfather had his farm at Thika, there was a big swamp down the back, full of monkeys, and snakes (buffalo too). Well, the local tribe called for him, as they had found a huge African Rock Python, which had the potential to cause issues on the farm, and upon the tribes request, he shot it with the 12 gauge. He measured the snake, a touch over 20 foot, that was un-skinned. Shame he didn't take photos, as, like other settlers, thought pythons were pythons, and had no idea that it wasn't normal for one to get that big. He said that he did keep the skin but it was left in the shed on the farm, when the Pollies forcefully purchased it.
One day he decided to put his reading glasses on and go read a book in his lounge room. Thank god he had his glasses on, as a 6 foot black spitting cobra was lying right across his books on his book shelf which he once again introduced to the 12 gauge, but boy, did he regret it, as he damaged a lot of his treasured books in the process. It's strange how a person who could catch Taipans and Brown snakes felt uncomfortable in catching and releasing a spitting cobra, but as it was cornered in his lounge room, I suppose I can understand.
Taipans and Browns are Australia's answer to the Black Mambas, just half the length of a mamba though. Both Taipans, and Browns are inquisitive, fast, and sometimes, unpredictable, but Browns are like Marijuana/Hemp smokers when they go cold turkey, they are totally aggressive and bitchy. I have dealt with a lot of Browns, but thankfully the only Taipans I have met face to face, is through the glass of my friends snake collection, and at various zoos. All I can say is that they come up to you, to face you behind the glass, not as in aggression, more like in a scary domineering curious way.
My mate also advised that Taipans are great escape artists, and hence keepers have to be on the ball, and always check the entire room out prior to letting visitors in, and he was really really serious about that.
I was also introduced to something I had never come across before, what a reptile keeper calls a 'Feed Hungry' snake, his one being a Brown Snake around 6 foot. Unlike other Brown's in the room in other containers, he would not allow strangers to feed him, as when you open the lid of the tank/Aquarium, this Brown would lunge at you, leaping half out of the tank to attempt to to snatch food from your hand before you could drop the food in the tank. Hence, the term 'Feed Hungry'! I actually witnessed the snake doing this, it was totally unreal.
Most of my encounters with Australia's poisonous snakes have occurred out in the scrub during Fishing and hunting Trips, some of the encounters being hilarious, and others just fascinating. I unlike others do not kill them, just leave them be, but sometimes the damned things disobey the scientific books and seriously come at you, but I still refuse to kill them. By the way, reptiles are protected in Australia, only certain licensed people can capture snakes legally. But feel free to view them in the wild.
Regards
Rob
