One of the reasons people fear coming to Australia are the many dangerous animals. Australia happens to have the 3 deadliest snakes in the world; the brown snake, mainland tiger snake, and the coastal taipan.
Although they have some of the deadliest animals, that should not be the reason why you do not come to this beautiful country. I have been to many places here, including a lot of rainforests and bushlands, where these animals populate, and I have not encountered any of them. However, I did have the chance to meet a native who works as a tour guide through these regions and has encountered some.
My tour guide told us stories about the few encounters he has had with snakes in his whole life and how he has never been bitten. One of his first encounters was when he was 7 years old and it was a brown snake in his sandbox. Initially, he was able to get away and get his dad. Now his dad came out with a shovel and told the boy to not move in the sandbox because any movement will make the snake get defensive and attack quicker. You would think the dad was gonna use the shovel to kill the snake, but that is not what happened.
Instead, the shovel was a distraction. His dad banged the shovel on the opposite side of the boy in the sandbox. This made the snake change his attention and turn and start hissing at the shovel, this gave him time to run away. I learned that snakes can sense vibrations from very far away, and by hitting the shovel on the opposite side of the sandbox, the vibration was so intense the snake went to attack it only to see it was a shovel.
This saved the boys life from a venomous bite. So some safety tips if ever encountering a deadly snake that has its teeth ready to bite:
- Do not move; go against all instincts to run because they can bite you much quicker than you can get away
- Do not look away; that shows you are not paying attention
- If no ones around, stay frozen until the snake gives up, usually takes about 3 minutes
- If someone is around, have them find a way to distract the snake
At a young age, all Australians are taught animal safety in school. It is important when touring and entering a place that you are aware has a lot of dangerous animals, to do some research on what to do in case you encounter one.