For Australians: how do you survive the dangerous animals and bugs?

Question

I'm really curious how Australian survive an average day when it contrains almost all of the most poisonus/dangerous insects and animals in the world packed into one country? Even the waters surrounding it have the most poisonus aquatic creatures, not to mention all the sharks.

Answer 1

The vast majority of Australians have never seen a snake outside a zoo - they live in cities. I live in the country and see a few snakes but they are shy and get out of your way. Australia might have the most venomous snakes but it doesn't have the most dangerous ones. The world's most dangerous snake is a viper from Sri Lanka and India which kills 50 people per million each year. By contrast, all Australian snakes kill 0.13 people per million per year. Most people bitten by snakes were trying to catch or kill them. Don't worry about snakes.

We have one of the world's deadliest spiders in the Sydney Funnel Web. There is now an antivenene for it but few people are bitten anyway. I never saw one in all my years living in Sydney. The redback spider is closely related to the black widow of North America but is only really dangerous to the very young and very old.

We have sea snakes which are highly venomous but don't bite people. There are stone fish, blue ringed octopuses and cone shells which sting or bite perhaps one person a year. The box jellyfish of northern Australia are deadly but you don't swim in the sea in the wet season. You don't swim in rivers with crocodiles and the major beaches are netted against sharks although they never ate many people anyway.

There are lots of scare stories about Australia's wildlife but unless you go looking for them, you won't see the deadly ones.

Answer 2

All are wild animals and will react in a wild manner. Of course they are dangerous as is every animal in the wild. A grown and mature Roo will rip you to pieces in no time flat should it feel threatened by you and there will be bugger all you can do to stop it. A Tassie Devil will tear you to shreds and simply not stop tearing at you until it or you is dead.The Koala will **** all over you and keep pissing on you and Koala urine aint nice stuff. Once it is all out of ****, the nasty little buggers love to bite and scratch. Tourist photos of cute little Koalas like some tame Teddy are mostly crap--for the tourist. As to a wombat, try finding one. Bet you can come here and never see one except in a wild life park or zoo. so dont worry about them. The old Numbat? Well, just go into any outer western public bar. Eventually a Numb NUT will come along but the Numbat like the Wombat aint too much of a worry.

Answer 3

It's a constant struggle mate. Every Australian baby is issued with a pump action shotgun at birth to keep the crocs and drop bears from attacking. Sometimes I wake up at night because the firing stops for a second or two and you then can hear the rooster that lives in someone's back yard nearby crowing. Nasty noisy bird.

But the shotties are not enough to keep off the spiders. Oh dear no. It takes many 50 megaton hydrogen bombs to get the little b@stards to desist. I have to use two, sometimes three every night to get the spiders out of the bed.

As for the sharks, they only attack foreign tourists climbing Ayer's Rock, so we don't worry about them too much.

Answer 4

It's a good question and I ask myself that everytime I see a huge redback spider hanging around my front door area, or a venemous eastern brown snake in my backyard, or when my hubby comes back from a surf and says, 'oh yeah, there was a shark in the water today' - but it's true for the most part that if you leave the critters alone, they'll leave you alone. The spiders are quite shy usually, they'll try and get away from you they won't run after you. The snakes only get aggressive if you try and attack them, or get in their way. I don't swim in the northern Queensland waters where the deadly box jellyfish live (and most people that do are tourists! The locals avoid it in danger times) - so we just make ourselves as safe as possible. People who live in the cities have less exposure to the really dangerous creatures. I did enjoy visiting New Zealand - knowing that there were NO snakes. And I loved England - not too many dangerous creatures there, apart from the chavs. America had their rattle snakes but not much else to worry about. Yes, Australia does have it's fair share of worrying bities, but we seem to get along with our lives without too many of us dying on a daily basis. Come down and see us sometime!!

Answer 5

Hmm, you are right, everything that bites or stings lives here. We mostly just get used to it.

As a matter of fact today I had a knock at the front door, it was the woman next door. She came to tell me that there is a big nest of brown snakes in the overgrown vacant lot behind us. Two had come into her yard, and the woman on the other side had seen a heap of them.

I'm not phobic about snakes, but we don't know what kind they are, it sounds like they might be deadly brown snakes rather than harmless pythons. I have to admit to freaking out a bit.. wish me luck !

Answer 6

I can only say from personal experience, I don't see any (what I consider) dangerous creatures on a daily basis, and I don't live in the city.
Unless, you want to add in human beings behind the wheels of their cars.
More Australians die or are injured in traffic accidents than by being attacked by any sort of dangerous creature.

Vehicle Accident Deaths 2004 - (Sorry couldn't find more recent data, didn't look.)
1,811 people lost their lives.

Snake bite -
We lose approximately 2 - 5 people per year to snake bite, usually those who were attempting to kill the reptile.
Red Back Spider -
Before the introduction of antivennene in 1956, there were 13 recorded deaths. Since the introduction, there has thankfully been no deaths.
Crocodile attacks -
Only 27 deaths have been recorded since 1971 from croc attacks. In almost all cases death occured whilst they swimming in crocodile country.

Answer 7

I work & travel a lot in the bush - & yes, there are lots of dangerous things out there.

Most Australians live in the cities & never leave the bitumen - or venture further than the city limits - so, as they've quoted in here, don't encounter the dangerous critters.

We have the likes of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world; man eating crocodiles; scorpions; centipedes; various poisonous spiders; virus bearing mosquitoes; poisonous jelly fish; blue ringed octopus; stone fish; those sharks you mentioned...........plus the drop bear!

But most Aussies survive because they don't encounter these bities in pubs, clubs or schools - they have to go the zoo to see them!

Answer 8

ha ha ha.

the top answer is very funny.

ok, it's really pretty simple. the majority of people that live in australia live in the suburbs.

we have a few redbacks around the home, but they don't kill you and you just need to be sensible (ie no sticking your hands into dark spots in your garage).

snakes don't usually come into heavily populated areas and if you live in the country or rural areas, you're normally in an old ute due to the distances travelled, so not much chance of a snake getting you there.

i've only ever been around caught sharks, i've never seen one in the ocean. the majority of dangerous beaches are usually signposted anyway - especially the ones with bad stinging jellyfish.

there are plenty of swimming beaches around but only a few shark sightings.

it's really not that bad. i reckon australians just get off on winding the rest of the world up about how 'hard' we are.

Answer 9

I grew up in the remote north-west of Australia for about 15 years, and strangely enough never met any of the nasties we constantly hear about in the media (despite the top 3 most deadly snakes being residents there). Yet since moving to Sydney I have seen more funnel web spiders up close and personal than I care to ever remember.

The basic advice is always the same though. If it moves, leave it the heck alone, and you will be fine.

Answer 10

There's also a saying regarding nature and it is ................You leave it alone and it will leave you alone. Most people who get bitten by snakes here are usually trying to attack it with a stick or something. As for the swimming side of things, you swim where the life savers are and where the shark nets are in place.