REPTILES

A snake in a funnel trap.

Australia has the most diverse collection of reptiles in the world. It has over 836 described species of reptiles, with many more still unnamed. It also has more reptiles species than birds species. A Complete Guide to the Reptiles of Australia says because there is so much diversity "no single person is ever likely to see all of our species in a lifetime". 

A Broad-banded Sand-swimmer (Eremiascincus richardsonii)

Reptiles are spread right across the continent from cool Alpine forests to tropical rainforests to coastal mangroves. However it is the arid zones which support the greatest diversity and concentration of reptiles. Spinifex, or porcupine grasses, cover vast tracts of land in central and western Australia. The protective foliage create a haven favoured by many species. It is said that "A square kilometre of Australian spinifex desert may support more species of reptiles than an area of comparable size anywhere else in the world". Interestingly nearly half of the reptile species are skinks. The most recent count says there are 389 species of skinks in Australia, this includes the well known Blue-tongue lizard.

A Dtella (Gehyra variegata)

Several times I have talked to people overseas and they say they would never visit Australia because of all the snakes and spiders we have (It was interesting that the last time I had this conversation I was in South Africa and we were monitoring lions in the wild!). This may be surprising when there are about 2500 species of snakes in the world but in Australia there are only 110 land snakes and 32 sea snakes. But not so surprising when you realise that of our snakes more than half of them are venomous, though not all of these venomous snakes have a poison that will kill, or even harm, humans. In the last 25 years there have been only 43 deaths from snake bite, and none of these have been in the last 10 years. There are more deaths in Australia from scuba diving accidents, lightning strikes, horse-riding accidents and, the worst of all, bee stings. Statistically India, South Africa and America are just some of the countries that are worse than Australia for deaths from snake bites.

Two views of the Ringed Brown Snake (Pseudonaja modest)