Taipans are large (up to 3 metres in length), fast, highly
venomous Australian snakes, one of which, the Fierce Snake, has
the most toxic venom of any land species worldwide although it
is not the most deadly. The taipan was named by Donald Thompson
after the word used by the Wik-Mungkan Aboriginal people of
central Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. There exist
three species: the common taipan, the less common inland taipan
(also known as the Fierce Snake and small-scaled snake)
(Oxyuranus microlepidotus) and a recently discovered third
species. The common taipan is broken up into two subspecies, the
mainland coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus scutellatus) and
the Papuan taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus canni) which is native
to the southern coast of Papua New Guinea. Their diet consists
primarily of small rodents, especially rats, and bandicoots. The
coastal taipan is usually pale to dark brown in colour, fading
to a lateral cream, although juveniles are lighter in colour.
The Papuan taipan is blac