This is a tiger snake video.
From the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare:
Bees, spiders bite more than snakes
Friday, 30 May 2008
Over 11,000 people in Australia were hospitalised because of a venomous bite or sting between 2002 and 2005, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
Spider bites accounted for a third of those hospitalisations, and the vast majority of spider bite cases were attributed to red-backs (59 per cent).
A much smaller proportion of cases were attributed to white-tailed spiders (7 per cent) and funnel web spiders (3 per cent).
Clare Bradley of the AIHW’s National Injury Surveillance Unit, said that 3 in 10 bite and sting hospitalisations were because of wasp and bee stings.
‘Bee stings alone accounted for almost 25 per cent of all bite and sting hospitalisations,’ she said.
Bites from snakes accounted for just 15 per cent of bite and sting hospitalisations.
‘Just over half of those snake bite cases were attributed to brown snakes (54 per cent). Black snake (15 per cent) and tiger snake (11 per cent) bites were also common,’ Ms Bradley said.
Other venomous bites and stings requiring hospitalisation in 2002-05 were attributed to venomous arthropods, such as ants, centipedes, and millipedes (10 per cent of cases) and venomous marine animals, such as jellyfish and stingrays (9 per cent).
The report, Venomous bites and stings in Australia to 2005, also revealed strong correlations between the rate of venomous bites and stings and place of residence.
Not surprisingly, residents of major cities had the lowest rate while residents of the very remote regions of Australia had the highest.
The highest rates of hospitalised bite and sting cases occurred in the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, while the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria had the lowest rates.
Top 10 most venomous animals in Australia: here.
King brown snakes and cane toads: here.
Redback spider sex: here.
AUSTRALIA’S DEADLY REDBACK SPIDER has shown its stripes in New Zealand, threatening to colonise major cities, researchers have found: here.
Scientists Discover Stinging Truths About Jellyfish Blooms In The Bering Sea: here.
Related articles
- First Venomous Crustacean Known To Science Confirmed (PHOTO) (huffingtonpost.com)
- Strange Animal: World’s First Venomous Crab Found in Waters Off Western Australia (strangesounds.org)
- Australia’s deadliest creatures (telegraph.co.uk)
- Centipede with deadly poison (weirdnewsfiles.com)
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- World’s first venomous crustacean found in Australia (telegraph.co.uk)
- Stings So Good: Centipede Venom Could Fight Pain (livescience.com)
- Dozens of Venomous Spiders Burst from a Bag of Sainsbury’s Bananas (inhabitat.com)
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Bush block holds biodiversity gems
* Andrea Hayward
* August 6, 2008 – 3:15PM
One of the 250 bats found at the Badgingarra property which is home to a plethora of threatened and rare species (Image courtesy of DEC).
One of the 250 bats found at the Badgingarra property which is home to a plethora of threatened and rare species (Image courtesy of DEC).
A remnant bush block on a farm in WA’s West Midlands has revealed a range of threatened species that will be earmarked for protection, the Department of Environment and Conservation says.
The 350ha biodiversity hotspot at Hi-Vallee farm in Badgingarra contains 38 priority flora species and four declared rare flora species.
Two of the priority flora species found on the remnant were unique to the small parcel of land on the farm, DEC Moora District Conservation Officer Kathy Himbeck said.
“It’s become clear from other surveys being conducted in the Moora district that Petrophile nivea and Dryandra catoglypta are known only to occur on the remnant site and these two species may possibly be re-classified as threatened florae in the near future,” Ms Himbeck said.
A total of 36 animal species have been recorded in the remnant as a result of four trapping sessions that registered 614 animals, with the expected number of animals recorded higher than anticipated.
Ms Himbeck said the number of species found in the small piece of remnant bush was quite impressive and a possible reflection of the diversity of the flora species and different habitate types.
“Each trapping session added at least one new species to the overall species list for the remnant,” she said.
Bats were among the animals surveyed, with 250 bats of four species recorded in five nights.
For farmer Don Williams the value of the biodiversity comes as a welcome boon.
He and his wife Joy share a love for flora and fauna and operate an eco-tourism business on their property, in tandem with running sheep and a small cropping program on the 1900ha property.
“It’s not an area that we actually farm, it’s an area we have set aside for conservation and we can use it in our eco-tourism business,” Mr Williams said.
“Some people look on these things as a problem but it’s not a problem for us.”
Mr Williams said eco-tourism was a growing industry and while some sections of the tourism industry were struggling because of the price of travel, eco-tourism attracted cashed up visitors.
The discovery of a large number of bats in the bushland, of four different species, was a good indicator of a healthy habitat, Mr Williams said.
“They didn’t expect in their recent survey to find nearly as many because bats, like frogs are an indicator of the overall health of an area of vegetation,” he said.
The remnant bushland will be burnt in a controlled burning program by DEC, with the area divided into six sections to be burnt on a rotational basis over 30 years.
Mr Williams said the bushland had not been burnt since 1965 and it was important to monitor the temperature of the burn.
“That’s essential because fire is such a contentious issue because on the whole people burn native vegetation too often, that’s my humble opinion,” he said.
“That’s good because a hot burn is good for this or a cool burn is good for that but no-one actually knows how hot hot is or how cool, cool is.”
Too hot a fire could burn the seed and compromise species contained in the bushland, Mr Williams said.
Biodiversity management guidelines have been produced for the Williams’ bushland during a two year information gathering exercise funded by the State Government.
Recovery actions include weed control, fencing, habitat rehabilitation and seed collection in a bid to protect the abundance of flora species on the bushland.
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/bush-block-holds-biodiversity-gems-20080806-3r10.html
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