#1311 - Pseudonaja nuchalis - Gwardar
AKA Western Brown Snake. Found on a path at the Wellard Wetlands, where I nearly stepped on her. ‘Gwardar’ apparently means “Go the long way around”, which is good advice when you encounter a gwardar. Staggeringly venomous, like many of her relatives, but shy and mostly inclined to try and scare you off by rearing up with neck flattened, a lunge or two, then taking off in the other direction at speed.
Getting bitten, then refusing antivenene treatment, is a good way to die, so it’s lucky I didn’t tread on her - and that the small kid running up and down the path a minute before hadn’t either.
Found across most of the continent, where ‘Western’ apparently means ‘everywhere that isn’t the eastern coastline or the southeast corner’. Comes in over a dozen seasonal and regional colour forms, often with dark bands that show very faintly on this juvenile.
Alcoa Wellard Wetlands, Perth