Firepac
Well-Known Member
For those that lump all snakes together as to how you should react and manage them, all I can say your field experiences with different species are evidently lacking. For example, I would comfortable tailing a warm tiger snake any day but would think twice about doing so with a warmed up brown snake. Eastern browns in particular have a short wick and are given to display aggressive defence far more readily than most other species. Steve Irwin did a video on the top 10 most dangerous snakes. Have a look at his handling of an Eastern Brown compared to the much more venomous Central Taipan.
Blue
This is getting off topic a little but I have to say that the reputation the Eastern Brown has for 'aggression' (a word i personally hate in this context) is greatly exaggerated. I have no experience in handling Tiger Snakes but have been catching EB's here in NQ for many years. I agree they are certainly NOT a snake to be taken lightly but almost without exception they will settle down within a short period of time when tailed and allowed to rest their head on the ground and the body supported by a hook. When they feel threatened by your approach and attempts to catch them they will obviously give a threatening defensive display and make 'striking' movements towards you but these initial strikes are almost invariably bluff/warnings. Eventually under continued harassment they will strike with intent but initially they are surprisingly tolerant of harassment but their behaviour is easily mistaken for aggression.
An interesting conclusion from a paper by Whitaker, Ellis and Shine entitled "The defensive strike of the Eastern Brown snake" states "Contrary to popular opinion, Eastern Brownsnakes are reluctant to deliver firm bites in response to human harassment even when continually provoked. It is estimated that only 15% of the strikes recorded had the potential to cause significant envenomation"
In my experience I fully concur with that statement.