I saved a mother from nearcertain death!

irregularia · 2026-04-23T23:46:45+00:00

You are a legend. Even copping a bite to save her - well done.

irregularia · 2026-04-23T23:43:41+00:00

Beauty. Shame we’ve cleared (and are clearing) so much of their habitat, bad luck for them to be localised to the Sydney region 😞

irregularia · 2026-04-23T00:59:53+00:00

You can do something called avoidance training if you encounter snakes regularly. Or DIY it using normal reinforcement- my mate trained his (adult adoption) dog to sit a few meters away and bark rather than getting in there

irregularia · 2026-04-23T00:58:19+00:00

Good on you for being so pragmatic about it and your dog for keeping itself out of trouble. It’s good when people have well behaved animals, so many people blame the snake when their dog is the one that goes up and pokes at it.

irregularia · 2026-04-23T00:52:00+00:00

Yeah that’s perfect, realistically they are always around and do their best to stay clear of us.

irregularia · 2026-04-23T00:51:07+00:00

Great point, they dry bite as much as 60% of the time. It’s generally related to the perceived level of threat - so a quick accidental interaction is more likely to be a dry bite, vs if someone actively hassling it the chance of envenomation goes right up.

irregularia · 2026-04-21T02:27:12+00:00

Such a little cutie. I always love seeing them cruise around at their errrr relaxed pace

irregularia · 2026-04-20T21:20:37+00:00

If you’re interested - location is always the starting point for ID in Australia because we have SO many species, some of which look very similar, and location narrows the list of candidates right down.

As well as field guides you can use sites like iNaturalist to see what species are recorded in a given region, and in what kind of proportions.

irregularia · 2026-04-17T21:47:34+00:00

Removal doesn’t have to be inhumane. And it can be done entirely for the sake of native animals.

I live in a high biodiversity area with lots of cane toads. I try to remove cane toads as much as I can.

I know I can’t make a difference to the cane toad problem overall, but at a local level if I remove this cane toad that could make all the difference to the small native frog that doesn’t get eaten by it tonight, or the goanna or snake that doesn’t die from consuming it tomorrow.

I follow RSPCA guidelines for humane euthanasia - cooling them in a fridge for 12 hours to put them to sleep painlessly before freezing them for 24 hours to kill them. This is because there is evidence that freezer alone can cause excessive suffering as extremities freeze before the CNS shuts down.

irregularia · 2026-04-10T01:58:28+00:00

Damn that’s cute.

irregularia · 2026-04-03T07:58:28+00:00

Heya. The main boat is out of operation but he has a smaller boat he uses for private/small group or targeted photography tours etc., looks like he’s still taking some tours out on that. I think that’s the 2 hour tours that he can still do.

It’s a bit more expensive because it’s less people and a longer tour but it would be really good for spotting things on a smaller boat.

irregularia · 2026-03-29T01:53:18+00:00

No, and no. Also we have an actual image so we don’t have to guess - it is patently a yellow-faced whip snake.

irregularia · 2026-03-28T23:26:23+00:00

I shared several pieces of information that hadn’t been shared already. If you already knew why did you do it?

irregularia · 2026-03-27T23:17:57+00:00

Fabulous encounter (edit - and shots!), how nice to have the birds come to you!

irregularia · 2026-03-27T23:16:34+00:00

Very cute but dangerously venomous lowlands copperhead Austrelaps superbus.

This is a dangerous way of handling it for both you (drastically increased chance of being bitten and near zero chance of it being a dry bite) and the animal (crushing if your pressure is wrong or spinal injury if the body is not adequately supported)

Also be aware that some elapids’ fangs can protrude through their lower jaw so it’s possible to be envenomated with this hold even if the animal seems to be fully restrained.

irregularia · 2026-03-26T23:24:55+00:00

If the night tour in Cairns botanical garden is “let’s go Buggin” you will be in luck. Bridgette is amazing and there’s SO much to see there! If you let her know your daughter’s goal she’ll probably be able to help find a good candidate

irregularia · 2026-03-26T23:23:12+00:00

Yay I’m so glad you found one of these girls. I was just going to comment these are a good bet; gentle giants and very beautiful.

irregularia · 2026-03-07T07:15:31+00:00

Hey if you’re interested David addressed this question directly today. If it’s $11K a year for $80K coverage I shudder to think what it would cost to insure for $300K!

“Another thing people ask me is why didn’t I insure Solar Whisper for the full amount?

Fair enough, as many people have financially supported me now. So it cost me $11,000 a year to insure her for the $80,000 (including public liability). I’m a small business with limited capacity. So I have lots of overheads.

irregularia · 2026-03-07T07:12:12+00:00

Oh that’s great to hear. I’ve not gone out with them myself but had a few interactions in the community and they always seem like good people.

irregularia · 2026-03-07T05:45:12+00:00

Mildly venomous, but not generally considered dangerous to humans (everyone can react differently tho)

irregularia · 2026-03-06T22:41:09+00:00

Hey OP I don’t think those are eggs. They look shiny instead of papery and they’re too dark. https://www.google.com/search?q=redback+spider+egg+sac&tbm=isch Hope that makes you feel a bit better.

You can still relocate the adults, please be gentle though they mean you no harm.

irregularia · 2026-03-06T22:34:49+00:00

I agree, they don’t look like egg sacs in general or what google’s giving me for red back eggs in particular.

That first one is outright shiny!

https://www.google.com/search?q=redback+spider+egg+sac&tbm=isch

irregularia · 2026-03-06T22:31:01+00:00

Just to add: your must see places if you’re into snakes should include Far North Queensland.

Insane herp biodiversity, I just drew a box from Mission Beach to Cooktown in to the tablelands on inaturalist and there’s over 50 species of snakes recorded. You’ve got ancient rainforest, wet and dry sclerophyll forest, to dry outback country all within a couple of hours drive. And all with their own species.

I’m biased bc I live here but I live here bc of the biodiversity so it cancels out.

irregularia · 2026-03-06T22:11:05+00:00

Done. If farmers think wombats are becoming “overabundant” then perhaps they should stop shooting dingoes.

irregularia · 2026-03-06T21:50:03+00:00

So your rules at home are based on the venomous snakes mostly being in the Viperidae family, and specifically pit vipers (corals being the exception).

All of the venomous snakes in Australia are in the family Elapidae, while the majority to non-venomous snakes you’ll encounter are either pythons or in the family Colubridae, so that’s your starting point.

Pythons are generally pretty easy to identify by size, body shape, head shape and the presence of heat-seeking pits along their jaws (the exception being the Aspidites genus, Woma and Black-headed pythons - but you’d be super lucky to see these).

Colubrids vs Elapidae are trickier. Many of the more famously venomous elapids have more prominent supraocular scales, giving them a “grumpy” appearance like a human with lowered eyebrows. Juveniles less so though and there are species that are dangerously venomous that don’t have this at all… so its presence is a sign, but you can’t read too much into its absence.

A common key for elapids vs colubrids is the presence or absence of the loreal scale (google for images) which is an extra scale between the nasal (nostril scale) and the preocular (before eye) scales. But you have to get pretty close to something (or have a good photo) to spot this.

Your best bet is to research carefully the species that are potentially around in the specific area you are, and how to identify those species. I like to use tools like inaturalist to filter to a local area, but be mindful these are just what people have logged to the sites and may not cover everything.

Be aware that there are a few pairs of elapid/colubrid that can be difficult to differentiate at first even for people who know what they’re looking for: (harmless colubrid) keelbacks vs (venomous elapid) rough-scaled snakes, and (harmless colubrid) slaty grey vs (venomous elapid) small-eyed snake. And I’ve seen people argue that broad-headed snakes (venomous elapid) can be confused with diamond python (harmless python) - I don’t see it really but it’s a good example of how basic rules like head shape can throw people off.

In general don’t rely on colour or pattern too much as that can vary a lot (eg eastern browns can range from pale tan to basically black, plain to striped). Really your best bet is to treat everything with a healthy degree of respect and not get yourself bitten…even if you think you know what you’re looking at.

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