‘Beware of snakes’ is a message to take very seriously indeed in Australia. There are about two hundred species in Australia, more than half of which are venomous and many, including some common ones found even in urban areas, lethal to humans. Sadly or happily depending on your point of view snakes are rarely encountered even when bush walking. Snakes are very sensitive to vibration (but have no ears at all) and quite timid, so they tend to clear out of the way before humans arrive. Usually all you’ll hear is a rustle in the leaf litter, or sometimes a quick glimpse of movement:

 

  

 

More rarely, you’ll get to see the animal properly:

 

 

This is probably the non-venomous Northern Tree Snake Dendrelaphis calligastra  a very active agile diurnal hunter of frogs and lizards. But it might not be, so discretion is definitely the better part of valour. The local birds obviously know that snakes are dangerous, as this sign at the conspicuously bird-free Townsville railway station demonstrates:

 

 

And here’s why one should beware snakes. This is a list displayed in the Cairns Botanical Gardens (where snakes are common) of the twenty five most dangerous land snakes in the world:

 

 

You will note that 20 out of 25 are Australian, including the whole of the top ten. There is no record of a human death caused by the Inland Taipan, a very rare and extremely timid snake – but on the other hand there are very few known survivors from the bite of its close relative the large and common Coastal Taipan unless anti-venom is quickly administered. The Eastern Brown Snake, another large common and very dangerous snake, has become adapted to human settlement requiring great care when gardening or clearing out the garage.

The Death Adder (what a lovely name) is one to be particularly wary of: its hunting method is to lie on a track, motionless and camouflaged, and strike out at passing mammals without warning.