Trickiest or most dangerous snake to deal with...

[EyeLashViper]

Okay everybody,
What snake in your experience or opinion do you think was or would be a very tricky and dangerous serpent to be dealing with on a daily basis...????

My own personal opinion based on trips to the zoo and literature I have read is the Black Mamba or any of the Mambas for that matter... D.polyepsis and D. angusticeps are truly nervous, high strung, fast and somewhat intelligent....and deadly venomous. I have seen these snakes and they slither around very rapidly and erratically....I was speaking with a reptile keeper at the L.A. zoo once and he told me that these snakes will try to shoot across their enclosure and dart out the open door during maintenance...he told me that they were definitely one snake that you had to be paranoid about. :shock:

EyelashViper

[Wizill]

ive seen a black mamba... and added it onto my "never to do again" list. scurry stuff.

[Alkaurkharim]

Black Mamba's aren't as aggressive as people think. They will only bite you out of self defense. In fact, most if not all snakes only bite for this reason. They even give you 3 warnings before they bite. They will first raise up and spread their hood. If you don't back away or move closer it will then open its mouth. If you still don't move away or move closer it will do a mock strike, which is rushing at you hissing and suddenly stopping. If you STILL don't move away or go closer it will then bite you. As long as you slowly back away you shouldn't ever get bitten by a Mamba.

They do however move faster then any other snake on open ground. Just 2 drops of venom can kill a human and they can have up to 20 drops in their fangs at a time. It's not the deadliest venom, as someone pointed out to me recently, but it is EXTREMELY fast acting and has been known to kill people within 15 minutes.

[iceman25]

In Mark Oshea(?) and my opinion, the Russels Viper is the dealiest to keep. One has to have flipped it to try and handle them :shock:

[led4urhead]

Bitis gabonica (Viperidae) aka Gaboon Viper

"I would describe a really motivated Gaboon as an exploding snake grenade. Their true strike range when they decide to get serious about it is close to 100% of their body length at any angle except straight vertical or directly backwards. Then it drops slightly. That means that a hand on the tail of a Gaboon viper is not in a very safe place if the head is not physically blocked."
- Taken from an article called "Please don't pet the Gaboons" at http://www.kingsnake.com/snakegetters/demo/gaboons.html


Definitely something i wouldnt want to mess with :shock:

[iceman25]

While not the most venomous snake in the world, Its defenitely the deadliest in me opinion. Its a known fact that Pit Vipers do not envenomate all of the time when they strike. The Russells Viper is the exception. It injects vast quantities of venom with every single bite! Death occurs as a result of bleeding profusely from eyes, nose, ears, mouth, unmentionable orafaces. Even old wounds start bleeding. This snake, I believe, holds the most no: of fatalities in the world!

[chong_python]

With out a doubt the Coastal Thypain (sp)
Most dangerous snake in the world

[Alkaurkharim]

Coastal Taipan. That would be incorrect though. Fierce Snake or Inland Taipan, which is very closely related to the Coastal Taipan, has the most potent venom in the world. Maximum yield recorded (for one bite) is 110mg. That would probably be enough to kill over 100 people or 250,000 mice. That's just 1 bite.

And Saw Scaled Viper's have venom 16 times more potent then Russell's Viper, and they are responsible for more deaths in Africa then all the other venomous African snakes combined.

The Tiger snake however is a very aggressive snake and kills more people in Australia then any other venemous snake.

The Malayan Krait has a 50% fatality rate even WITH antivenin treatment.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Alkaurkharim.
No snake is mean.
NOTHING i mean.
Including tokays!
But the one snake I would never get (even though i don't 'do' snakes) is a green anaconda.

[EyeLashViper]

Very,very interesting comments on this topic...I was particularly interested in the information regarding the Gaboon Viper...I was always under the impression that this snake was a kind of fuddy duddy viper....slow and sluggish...I see how misleading these animals can be....I like the description of the Gaboon as an "exploding snake grenade" .......

EyeLashViper