{"id":584516,"date":"2026-04-04T07:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584516\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T07:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:12:12","slug":"climate-change-driving-highly-venomous-snakes-towards-australias-densely-populated-coastlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584516\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change driving highly venomous snakes towards Australia’s densely populated coastlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ophidiophobes beware, some of Australia<\/a>‘s most venomous snakes<\/a> could be turning up more and more in city dwellers’ backyards and parklands along the nation’s east coast.This is among the conclusions of a major international research project published today, which found that climate change<\/a> is driving a snake migration southwards, away from \ufeffAustralia’s arid centre and towards its highly populated coastlines.<\/p>\n

Snake bites kill approximately 138,000 people and disable a further 400,000 people worldwide each year.<\/p>\n

\"InlandAustralia’s inland taipan boast the deadliest venom in the world, powerful enough to kill 100 adults with a single bite. (Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Australia is known for being home to the majority of the world’s most deadly snake species, including the top three: the inland taipan, the eastern brown snake and the coastal taipan.<\/p>\n

However, deaths from snake bites in Australia are fairly rare, averaging two or three each year.<\/p>\n

As well as rapid access to antivenoms and other treatments, this is in large part because snakes typically avoid built-up urban centres, with many city-dwellers rarely sighting one unless they take to bushwalking. <\/p>\n

The international research team – which included \ufeffscientists from the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine – used computer modelling to study the overlap between all 508 medically significant venomous snake species and human populations.<\/p>\n

They then modelled how these would shift due to changes in the global climate by 2050 and 2090.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Of all of Australia’s venomous snakes, they found the eastern brown had the highest \ufeffoverlap with humans, followed by the coastal taipan.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe highly venomous eastern brown snake is aggressive when threatened and frequents human dwellings, making it Australia’s most dangerous snake. (iStock)<\/p>\n

The eastern brown snake is the second most venomous snake in the world and is responsible for most of the country’s fatal snake bites.<\/p>\n

It can be found all the way down the east coast from Queenland<\/a> to Victoria<\/a> but typically prefers dry grass and woodlands.<\/p>\n

However, by 2050, changes to Australia’s climate would see the eastern brown’s range expand south, especially along the highly populated east coast, the study found.<\/p>\n

At the same time, inland species such as the inland taipan would see their range across northern and inland Australia shrink.<\/p>\n

“Before this study surprisingly little was known about the exact distribution of many medically important snakes, even some widespread ones that cause many bites,” the study authors said.<\/p>\n

“Our predictions can be used to decide where to stockpile which antivenom, how to ensure adequate capacity of individual health facilities, how to improve health care accessibility of remote at-risk communities, and where to focus conservation efforts for threatened snake species.”<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ophidiophobes beware, some of Australia‘s most venomous snakes could be turning up more and more in city dwellers’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-584516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}