The Most Venomous Snake In The World
Vipers, mambas, adders, subtracters. These are the Oscar nominees for "Most Venomous Snake in the World." However, as is usually the case with such awards, the snake truly deserving of the honor gets snubbed entirely.
The world's most venomous snake is the inland taipan, according to Australian Museum, which makes its home Down Under, in southwestern Queensland and northwestern South Australia.
If you've never heard of it, you're not alone. There are a few reasons why. For one, like the main female character in a '90s rom-com, inland taipans are quite shy and typically don't flaunt their power. They've really got to get riled up in order to bite, and even so they won't always "go all the way" and inject their venom. But if they do? Men swoon.
The inland taipan generally hangs out in the burrows of other animals or in cracks in the dry soil of the plains it inhabits, preferring to dine exclusively on small- to medium-sized mammals like rats. So, despite also being known by the nickname "fierce snakes," inland taipans are pretty chill, and also pretty rarely seen. The few recorded human bites have not registered any deaths, but that's mostly due to fast application of first aid.
So why is the inland taipan the most venomous snake in the world?
If you are bitten by an inland taipan, you should expect an extremely rapid onset of symptoms including headache, nausea, abdominal pain, kidney failure, respiratory failure, and potentially paralysis, according to Toxinology.com.
Due to its toxicity, rated highest among the objective LD50 scale on mice, coupled with a "spreading factor" that increases the rate of absorption into the bloodstream, if the bite isn't treated within a short amount of time, it can be life threatening. National Geographic reports that one bite contains enough venom to kill 100 people: The taipan has "both the most toxic venom and injects the most venom when it bites."
So while the inland taipan is not the world's most dangerous snake as there are no recorded cases of human death to its name, scientifically speaking, it is the most venomous snake and deserves more respect from all the popular snakes who date jocks and go to prom.