Eastern Brown Snake Pseudonaja textilis
As a snake catcher and wildlife ecologist from brisbane I get contacted all the time to remove the infamous and highly venomous ‘brown snake’ from a persons home or business. More often than not I arrive to find that the snake has been misidentified by the caller and amazingly they often don’t believe me when I tell them otherwise! The amount of miss-information put out by people that ‘grew up in the bush’ or ‘have been hunting for years’ causes this confusion amongst the public.
So, with this in mind please find a detailed description and pics of a REAL eastern brown snake.
The eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis) is a skittish, fast-moving, highly venomous species of snake found in Brisbane and indeed much of QLD and NSW responsible for more human fatalities than any other Australian snake. It is highly variable in colour and shading, ranging from olive to brown to black and can be unpatterned, banded or speckled. The belly is cream to yellow and generally flecked with orange dots. Juveniles often have a dark band across their nape and can be equally as skittish as their parents, often displaying the classic S-shape defensive posture when threatened.
The eastern brown is found in a wide variety of habitats favouring disturbed areas where its primary prey items – small mammals and reptiles – are plentiful. It can grow to over two metres.
Thanks for reading!