Coastal Taipan

Oxyuranus scutellatus

Coastal Taipan: Australia's Bite-and-Release Rat Hunter

The coastal taipan is a large, fast, highly venomous snake of northern and eastern Australia and southern New Guinea. It hunts rats and bandicoots by day with lightning bites, lets the prey run, then follows its scent.

Habitat
Monsoon forest, woodland, grassland, cane fields
Size
About 2 m on average, up to 2.9 m
Diet
Mainly rats and mice, plus bandicoots and some birds
Range
Coastal northern and eastern Australia, southern New Guinea
Conservation
Least Concern (IUCN)
Family
Elapidae (genus Oxyuranus, shared with the inland taipan)

Habitat & range

The Australian subspecies ranges in an arc from northeastern New South Wales through Queensland and the north of the Northern Territory to northern Western Australia, and a second subspecies, Oxyuranus scutellatus canni, lives in southern New Guinea (Australian Museum). It likes warm, wetter coastal country: monsoon forest, woodland and grassy areas, including paddocks, cane fields and old rubbish tips where rats are plentiful. It shelters in old burrows, hollow logs and piles of plant litter (Australian Museum). The IUCN lists it as Least Concern (IUCN Red List).

Diet & hunting

Unusually for an Australian elapid, the coastal taipan specialises in warm-blooded prey. One diet study found about 72% rodents, 22% bandicoots and 5% birds (Tasoulis et al. 2020, Toxins). It hunts mainly by day, often travelling with its head raised to scan for prey. When it spots something it freezes, then hurls itself forward with one to several lightning-fast bites and lets go. Releasing the prey keeps the snake away from a rat's sharp incisors, and it then follows the scent trail with its flicking tongue to find the dying animal (Australian Museum).

Colour & defence

Adults are yellowish, reddish brown, dark brown or nearly black, with a paler head and a pale snout, a cream belly with orange flecks, and large eyes with an orange-brown iris (Australian Museum). They change colour with the seasons, turning darker in winter and paler in summer, which probably helps them warm up or avoid overheating (Australian Museum). Given room, a taipan slips away. Cornered, it raises its head and forebody, flattens its body sideways and may strike several times very fast, often without warning (Australian Museum). Average venom yield is about 120 mg, with a record of 400 mg (Australian Venom Research Unit).

Eggs & young

Taipans lay eggs. Two to three months after mating, a female lays 3 to 21 soft-shelled eggs, 11 on average, in a log hollow, under roots or in a ground cavity. They hatch two to three months later (Australian Museum). Hatchlings are about 46 cm long and hunt on their own straight away. In captivity young taipans can pass 1 m in their first year (Australian Museum).

Fun facts about Coastal Taipan

  • The word taipan comes from the Wik-mungkan people of Cape York (Australian Museum).
  • Males wrestle each other by twisting their bodies together and pushing down the rival's head (Australian Museum).
  • In hot weather this usually day-active snake may switch to hunting at night (Australian Museum).
  • A female can lay a second clutch weeks after mating, which suggests she stores sperm (Australian Museum).
  • Venom milked in 1950 from the first taipan ever milked was found in 2014 and was still toxic (Museums Victoria).

Coastal Taipan vs King Cobra

The king cobra wins: it is bigger and hunts snakes for a living.

These two would never meet in the wild: the coastal taipan lives in Australia and New Guinea (Australian Museum), the king cobra in South and Southeast Asia (Animal Diversity Web). In a made-up showdown, the taipan brings speed, long fangs and a big venom load, striking several times in a row (Australian Museum). The king cobra is built for exactly this fight. It averages 3 to 3.7 m, much longer than a 2 m taipan, and it mostly eats other snakes (Animal Diversity Web). Our verdict: the snake-eater wins.

Read more about King Cobra.

Common questions about Coastal Taipan

Is the coastal taipan more venomous than the inland taipan?

No. Drop for drop, the inland taipan has the more toxic venom, but the coastal taipan delivers far more: about 120 mg on average and up to 400 mg, versus about 44 mg for the inland taipan (Australian Venom Research Unit). See our most venomous snakes ranking.

How long are a coastal taipan's fangs?

Up to about 12 mm, the longest fangs of any Australian elapid, and the snake can swing them slightly forward before it strikes (Australian Museum). The Australian Venom Research Unit puts them at up to 13 mm (AVRU).

Is there an antivenom for coastal taipan bites?

Yes. Australia's taipan antivenom was released by the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in July 1955 (Museums Victoria). Before antivenom and modern medical care, more than 90% of taipan envenomations were fatal (Australian Venom Research Unit). Any suspected bite still needs urgent medical help.

Who was Kevin Budden and what did he do with a taipan?

A young snake collector who caught a coastal taipan near Cairns on 27 July 1950 so scientists could study its venom. He was bitten while bagging it and died the next day, but insisted the snake be sent to Melbourne. It became the first taipan ever milked, and its venom was used to develop the antivenom (Museums Victoria).

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