# Re stereotype of Australian plants & animals being more poisonous than average - True or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096 "2012-02-27T00:10:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/1 "2012-02-27T00:10:21Z")
It’s a well know trope that everything in Australia is out to get you, and that every other plant or animal you encounter there is likely to be poisonous or dangerous in some manner. Have any scientific surveys ever been conducted to verify this? are Australian animal’s \*really \*more deadly on average than the animals on the other continents? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/2 "2012-02-27T02:38:58Z")
“On average”? Average deadliness must be brought down a lot by the fact that there are lots and lots of completely harmless Australian plants and animals. Native Australian flora and fauna are _very different_ from the rest of the world. That makes them exotic to the rest of you. And, yes, there are some pretty poisonous ones. “Exotic” + “poisonous” = “gets talked about”. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/3 "2012-02-27T02:44:34Z")
Ok, take the total number of animals on a continent, and the number of people, and the number of deaths, carry the one… oh forget it. I hope we hear some good stuff about how deadly animals on different continents are now. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/4 "2012-02-27T02:58:39Z")
Perhaps you could use a Top Ten/Five list? [ul] [li][Nine out of ten deadliest snakes](https://crikeymatemosaic.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/the-deadliest-snakes-in-the-world/) - Australia[/li][li][10 Most Dangerous Marine Creatures](http://www.divetime.com/articles/Scuba_Diving_Trivia/10_Most_Dangerous_Marine_Creatures_156.html) - How many in Australian waters?[/li][li][Top 10 Deadliest Spiders](http://scienceray.com/biology/the-top-10-deadliest-spiders/) - How many in Australia?[/li][li][Deadliest Monotremes](http://thewebsiteofeverything.com/animals/mammals/Monotremata/index.html) - How many in Australia?[/li][li][Top 5 Most Aggressive & Deadliest Birds on the Planet Earth](http://akeetlebeetle.hubpages.com/hub/Top-5-Most-Aggressive-Deadliest-Birds-on-Planet-Earth) - How many in Australia?[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/5 "2012-02-27T03:08:07Z")
We have a lot of the most venomous snakes. Of the top 5, 4 are Australian: > [@from Wikipedia](#): > > Most venomous land snakes (Ernst and Zug et al. 1996)[1][2] > > ```auto > > Snake Region SC LD50 > Inland taipan Australia 0.025 mg/kg > Eastern brown snake Australia 0.0365 mg/kg > Coastal taipan Australia, New Guinea 0.106 mg/kg > Many-banded krait China, Taiwan, Burma, Laos, Vietnam 0.108 mg/kg > Peninsula tiger snake Australia 0.131 mg/kg > Saw-scaled viper Asia; Indian subcontinent 0.151 mg/kg > Black Mamba Sub-Saharan Africa 0.185 mg/kg > Western tiger snake Australia 0.194 mg/kg > Eastern coral snake Northeast Mexico, southeast U.S. 0.196 mg/kg > Philippine cobra Philippines 0.20 mg/kg > > ``` I can’t look up spiders for you because I’m too phobic to look at pictures of them while collecting data. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/6 "2012-02-27T03:08:55Z")
We do like to encourage the idea. The OP is impossible to answer really, as it is going to depend upon how you define the metric. We have lots of very poisonous snakes, but also lots of harmless ones. So what does that mean? We have some seriously evil spiders, and also cute furry ones that do little more than eat the flies. We don’t have any large predators. That is something rather interesting about Oz. No equivalent of lions, tigers, bears, or wolves. The biggest predators are exotic - foxes and feral cats, plus dingos (dogs, and thus really exotic) in the North. You can go almost anywhere in Oz without caring about predators (other than human.) Crocodiles are as bad as it gets. Don’t swim where the sign says no swimming. It isn’t hard. (Tourists it seems usually either can’t read or somehow think that they are immune.) Wild boar in the top end are dangerous, but not exactly special to Oz. Neither worry 99.9% of the population. Most large fauna is dopey and vegetarian. Our worst bitey insects are exotic (like European Wasps) and our wretched venomous toads similarly exotic. Sea life can be pretty evil in some ways. Blue ringed octopus, sharks of course, stone fish, stingrays, box jellyfish. But the actual number of people affected is very low, and we cheerfully swim in most seas, and the only people that get eaten by crocodiles are tourists. People that enjoy walking in the OZ wilderness are usually only ever worried about annoying flies and mosquitoes and carry incest replant. You can probably take fewer precautions here than when walking in many other countries. (You do however avoid doing stupid things like sticking your arm into hollow logs or under rocks or walking in long grass.) ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/7 "2012-02-27T03:16:07Z")
I’m not aware of any specific studies, but it really depends what you mean by ‘more deadly’ on average. If you’re talking # of deaths as a portion of population, I would be comfortable saying not. Largely I think because Australia is a highly urbanised country, with ~85%+ of the population living in urban centres, with very little exposure to the dangerous critters out there. Deaths from wildlife doesn’t even rate in the top 10 causes of death in Australia. One stat I saw, from 2007, was ‘wildlife’ deaths totaling ~40 people, half of which were lethal bee stings! (Not exactly a reputedly dangerous native Australian beasty) If you want to look at some other measure, IE the toxicity of venom, than it is an oft repeated phrase that Australia has 9 of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world (actual number depends upon which list you look at) Which would tend to lean in the affirmative. Another measure perhaps are creatures that are poisonous here that you wouldn’t expect to be, IE the Blue ringed Octopus, Stone Fish, several varieties of particular nasty jellyfish, the cute little platypus (although the playtpus poison is not considered lethal). If you want to consider the proportion of animals (in totality) that are lethal. Hard to say, we seem to have more of the creepy-crawly type dangerous critters, but we are lacking in the big land predators. (No bears, lions, etc) The closet we have to a ‘large’ predator is a Dingo, (wild dogs effectively) and they are considered dangerous to children but not grown adults. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/8 "2012-02-27T03:17:11Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > People that enjoy walking in the OZ wilderness are usually only ever worried about annoying flies and mosquitoes and carry **incest replant**. You guys are even weirder than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/9 "2012-02-27T03:21:31Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > . and we cheerfully swim in most seas, Maybe ‘most’ is correct, but Box Jellyfish preclude swimming in the ocean for six months of the year throughout North Queensland. Unless you want to wear a stinger suit (ruins a swim IMO) or swim in a stinger enclosure. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/10 "2012-02-27T03:37:01Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > …Crocodiles are as bad as it gets. Don’t swim where the sign says no swimming. It isn’t hard. (Tourists it seems usually either can’t read or somehow think that they are immune.)… > [@](#): > > …the only people that get eaten by crocodiles are tourists. Do you have cite for this? My impression is that far more locals are attacked and/or killed than tourists. Their stories are not as well publicised as “tourist killed by croc” stories. When I’ve been in FNQ the blase attitude of locals has been the outstanding feature, while _most_ tourists are scared to paranoia and hence careful. In a quick look I haven’t found any clear statistics, but [this story](http://www.smh.com.au/national/recent-crocodile-deaths-in-australia-20090411-a3b2.html) gives some indication. It doesn’t always make clear whether the victim was local or tourist, but if you just count the cases where that is made clear, the count is three/two between locals and tourists. And if you make the (in my view entirely realistic) assumption that if the victim’s residence is not mentioned it is because they are local, then the count is 11 to two between locals and tourists. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/11 "2012-02-27T03:43:41Z")
True, and thoroughly documneted. See this thread: [Deadly Australian Wildlife](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=617324&highlight=australian+tourist+bureau) Over 20,000 Australians are killed yearly by wild animals, and Australia is the only country ever to have lost a _war_ to wild animals. The Master Himself has done a piece on the latter, although He was uncharacteristically duped by a sanitized version of events: [The Emu War](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2952/did-the-australian-army-once-wage-war-on-emus) ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/12 "2012-02-27T03:45:15Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Do you have cite for this? My impression is that far more locals are attacked and/or killed than tourists. Their stories are not as well publicised as “tourist killed by croc” stories. When I’ve been in FNQ the blase attitude of locals has been the outstanding feature, while _most_ tourists are scared to paranoia and hence careful. > > In a quick look I haven’t found any clear statistics, but [this story](http://www.smh.com.au/national/recent-crocodile-deaths-in-australia-20090411-a3b2.html) gives some indication. It doesn’t always make clear whether the victim was local or tourist, but if you just count the cases where that is made clear, the count is three/two between locals and tourists. And if you make the (in my view entirely realistic) assumption that if the victim’s residence is not mentioned it is because they are local, then the count is 11 to two between locals and tourists. You sound familiar. Australian Tourist Bureau issue, right? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/13 "2012-02-27T03:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Do you have cite for this? My impression is that far more locals are attacked and/or killed than tourists. No, it was really a poor attempt at humour. It makes the news when it is a tourist, when it is some unlucky local it isn’t so big. I have a sneaking suspicion that the unlucky locals are often local indigenous, and thus often beneath the radar of mainstream media. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/14 "2012-02-27T03:51:21Z")
> [@](#): > > We don’t have any large predators. That is something rather interesting about Oz. No equivalent of lions, tigers, bears, or wolves. What about the Tasmanian Devil; isn’t that a rough analog to wolves? Or are you not counting Tasmania? ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/15 "2012-02-27T03:59:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What about the Tasmanian Devil; isn’t that a rough analog to wolves? Or are you not counting Tasmania? Don’t let Warner Brothers fool you. 😃 The Tasmanian Devil is actually pretty small, a bit smaller than say…a badger? and is primarily a scavenger not a predator. Although it might come after you with it’s infectious face cancer! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/16 "2012-02-27T04:01:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What about the Tasmanian Devil; isn’t that a rough analog to wolves? Or are you not counting Tasmania? They are a lot smaller than you think. Think small dog. Warner Brothers not withstanding. You don’t want to try to pick one up, but it isn’t any danger to people. Hah! Beaten to it - even the Warner Bros bit 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/17 "2012-02-27T04:09:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What about the Tasmanian Devil; isn’t that a rough analog to wolves? Or are you not counting Tasmania? 1. Size: about that of a small dog 2. Not generally known for hunting in packs 3. Only found in Tasmania 4. Endangered species (only 10-15,000 estimated to be left in the wild). They’re suffering from a contagious cancer, Devil facial tumour disease, which is believed to have reduced their population by up to half since it was first seen in 1996. ETA: None of those responses were there when I started typing! ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/18 "2012-02-27T04:27:46Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > The biggest predators are exotic - foxes and feral cats, plus dingos (dogs, and thus really exotic) in the North. In no sense are foxes, cats or dingos restricted to the north of anywhere. They are found throughout the mainland. > [@](#): > > Crocodiles are as bad as it gets. Don’t swim where the sign says no swimming. It isn’t hard. This isn’t in any sense true. Crocodiles inhabit around a hundred thousand kilometres of waterways and another 20, 000 off kilometres of coastline. Needless to say, Australia hasn’t signposted that entire length. At best I would guess there would be signs on average ever hundred kiometres. > [@](#): > > Wild boar in the top end are dangerous… Pigs are in no sense restricted to the Northern Territory, nor are the pigs in NT any more dangerous than pigs in New England. > [@](#): > > Our worst bitey insects are exotic (like European Wasps)… Once again this isn’t in any sense true. Australia’s worst insects are honey bees, which are exotic. The runner up are the native bull ants,which kill almost as many people as bees. > [@](#): > > …and our wretched venomous toads similarly exotic. Cane toads are no more venomous than several native toads and frogs. > [@](#): > > … we cheerfully swim in most seas, and the only people that get eaten by crocodiles are tourists. Not in any sense true. > [@](#): > > People that enjoy walking in the OZ wilderness are usually only ever worried about annoying flies and mosquitoes and carry **incest replant**. Paging Doctor Freud. Paging Doctor Freud. > [@](#): > > You do however avoid doing stupid things like sticking your arm into hollow logs or under rocks or walking in long grass.) I assume that you are implying that snakes live in long grass, which is a popular though utterly incorrect myth. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/19 "2012-02-27T05:05:00Z")
And despite all the above, hardly anyone actually dies from wildlife here: Human Deaths in Australia Between 1980-1990, Inclusive (from Stevens & Paxton, 1992) Crocodile Attacks 8 Shark Attacks 11 Snakes 0 Spiders 0 Lightning Strikes 19 Bee Stings 20 Scuba Diving Accidents 88 Drownings/Submersions 3,367 Motor Vehicle Accidents 32,772 ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096/20 "2012-02-27T05:20:40Z")
I think we have some pretty poisonous plants from which a poison has been derived (a number of local fauna have an immunity I understand) The poison is commonly called 1080 [Sodium fluoroacetate - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_fluoroacetate) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-stereotype-of-australian-plants-animals-being-more-poisonous-than-average-true-or-not/614096.md?page=2)