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Im very experienced with non venomous snakes but have no experience at all with venomous reptiles-I was just wanting the opinion of folks on this forum who do. I was just watching TV & witnessed a gentleman in Australia (Not Steve Irwin) who was free-handling an Inland Taipan! He claimed the snake was typically docile in nature & didnt seem too concerned.I was blown away because this behavior goes against all I've read about dealing with "Hot snakes". Are these types of "Crocidile Hunters" living on borrowed time or have they achieved some type of zen like ability working with snakes of this nature. I just see a lot of crazy behavior on the tube these days from kissing Kings to this. It seems to me the stakes would be to high.Just wanted the opinion of those who would know.

All statements made hereunder are subject to the usual exception that every individual snake is different and will behave accordingly.

"I was just watching TV & witnessed a gentleman in Australia (Not Steve Irwin) who was free-handling an Inland Taipan! He claimed the snake was typically docile in nature & didnt seem too concerned."

I had the impression that Taipans were very aggressive snakes that would strike given the first opportunity. And then I saw four or five coastals and inlands handled, in person. Most of these were "typically docile in nature & didn't seem too concerned". They were quite happy to cruise around the backyard and be persuaded as to where to go. Their intelligence and sensory perception is very very apparent when they are moving around. The slightest move of hand, and they would turn their heads and stare so as to almost burn a hole right through you. There was one that was approx 6-7 feet, who was a nasty individual - would strike several times at his holding bucket when being put in, leaving its potent venom dripping down the sides. But for the most part they were very docile.

Keep in mind though, that these taipans had never once been pinned, and never once been tonged. Only hooked, and tailed. Snakes strike for two reasons. The first is to feed. The second is defensive. What do you think goes through the mind of a taipan when it is having its ribs squashed by tongs? Or its head pressed to the ground by a jigger? Pure defence. If you take away the threat, you take away the defensive strike, but as usual, there's exceptions, and many will disagree with my ideology.

"I was blown away because this behavior goes against all I've read about dealing with "Hot snakes". Are these types of "Crocidile Hunters" living on borrowed time or have they achieved some type of zen like ability working with snakes of this nature."

I have a different attitude when it comes to hots (and here I refer specifically to Australian Elapids). For many species, I don't think there's a need for entire exclusivity from physical contact. They don't all strike just because they can. They aren't all out to kill every living thing that walks by them. Others will disagree, and I can respect that. The television personailities you speak of are not superheroes. But they do know the specific individual snakes they work with very very well. Being able to read a group of snakes is very difficult, other than generalisations. But to read an individual, after enough time, becomes easy. They all have personalities. That said, there's always the chance of strike.

"I just see a lot of crazy behavior on the tube these days from kissing Kings to this. It seems to me the stakes would be to high.Just wanted the opinion of those who would know."

Perhaps this sort of attitude doesn't belong on television. Depending on the mode it is delivered in, and the reasoning behind it, it can lead to the wrong impressions being forwarded. At the end of the day, these animals are dangerous. The only freehandling that occurs on television (if at all) should be educational, and purely for promoting that snakes are not sheer 'evil'. But at the same time, perhaps the public having the general contention that snakes are 'evil' lowers risks posed on the public by living with wild animals. Freehandling purely for 'macho' purposes is comparable to those who place their heads in the mouths of lions, or their arms in the mouths of crocodiles.

Taipans are highly intelligent, highly evolved, highly dangerous creatures, and certainly aren't for everyone. But this has earned them a false stigma of being malicious or vicious - some may be, not all are.
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Happy Herping

I was about to reply saying something about the differences between inland and coastal taipans...and then Aaron beat me to it and negated my point Oh well, I'll say it anyway. It is a pretty widely known fact that inland taipans, aka fierce snakes, aka small-scaled snakes, are a far cry from their coastal cousins. In fact, in my personal opinion (obviously just based on viewing many pictures and reading lots of anecdotal information), inland taipans are taipans in name only. They are morphologically, behaviorally, and toxicologically vastly different from both coastal forms. To me, they seem to be a brownsnake. But again, I have not ever worked with them, just the PNG subspecies of coastal, so I can't really comment much.

All that being said, inlands are known to be pretty mild in mannerisms, while coastals are known to be pretty nutty. As Aaron pointed out, every snake is an individual, so generalities should be avoided if possible. But if given the choice and forced to choose between the two, with the proper AV on hand, I'd probably choose to freehandle the inland over the coastal. Why, you might ask? Well even though the inland is far more toxic than the coastal, coastals have bigger fangs (really big), deliver more venom (lots more), and tend to strike repeatedly, delivering more and more venom each time.

I would imagine that the gentleman freehandling the inland on the show you saw probably had a team of paramedics standing ready and had AV on site. That, or it could have been a venomoid (had its venom glands removed). I know there is at least one snake 'expert' down there in Oz who has done this procedure in the past.

The reasons some people freehandle hots vary, but you may have hit the nail right on the head with your speculation. Some people feel like it makes them be 'one' with the animal....or whatever. Personally, I think that's crazy, but that's just me. Snakes, and most other reptiles, are purely instinctual predators that have evolved over millenia to do what they do. To assume (imagine) that the snake somehow connects to you when you hold it with your bare hands is, well, nutty, kind of like some folks up here in this part of the world who do that for religious purposes. Freehandling them like that probably no more lessens the stress of the situation than a gentle hooking and tailing method.

So anyway, please don't copy what you see on tv, unless you have that same team of paramedics and AV on hand. And yes, those who freehandle are living on borrowed time, that which they borrow from the snake.
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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

Thank you both for your insight, I just see this type of behavior on TV & am concerned it might send the wrong message.Thanks for sharing your thoughts....