![]() The protein attaches itself to nerve synapses and prevents them from switching off – salivary glands, tear ducts and sweat glands all run uncontrollably, muscles begin to spasm, blood pressure climbs as vessels contract and then falls to dangerously low levels. Instead of shutting down nerve signals, it switches them all on at once, causing massive electrical overload in the body’s nervous system. Like snake neurotoxins, robustoxin disrupts nerve signals, but in the opposite way. Only one, robustoxin, is really dangerous to humans. “Particularly the tree-dwelling variety in northern NSW where the female is as dangerous as the Sydney funnel-web.” There is also a variety that lives around the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast hinterland whose venom, while not as bad as its Sydney cousin, can still cause serious illness.Ī funnel-web’s venom is packed with at least 40 different toxic proteins (called peptides). “But there are other species of funnel-webs that can cause trouble,” says Ken. They carry a very powerful neurotoxin which can be administered in large doses – hence they get a particularly bad reputation and are responsible for 13 of Australia’s 27 recorded deaths from spider bites in the past 100 years. The Sydney funnel-webs, Atraxrobustus, garners the most attention. What most people think of as a funnel web is actually a collection of about 35 different species, many of which are dangerous. Ranging from 1-5cm, funnel-web spiders live in burrows in the ground, or in stumps, tree trunks or ferns. And they are aggressive, especially the males in the summer looking for a mate.” ![]() ![]() “They are a black and hairy, an almost demonic-looking spider – so they don’t do themselves any favours in the likeability stakes. “No other spider can kill an adult in two hours,” he says of the funnel web, which is a spider of ancient classification, more primitive than most. The Australian Venom Research Unit’s Dr Ken Winkel reckons the funnel-web is peerless, worldwide, in terms of how venomous it is. While no-one has died from a funnel-web bite for more than 30 years, the spider remains a creature that raises hairs on the back of everyone’s neck. Australia’s most dangerous animals: top 30Ī bite from this highly venomous spider can kill a human in two hours, with a toxic cocktail that switches on all your nerves at once.10 most dangerous stingers in Australia.Bees more deadly than spiders in Australia.Australian spiders: the 10 most dangerous.They’ll kill you quite quickly, actually. Okay, so it’s a flesh wound you may want to get to the hospital in a hurry to treat, but it won’t necessarily kill you as quickly as Hollywood would have you believe. Still, there are a few creatures lurking in Australia’s wild places that, wrong time, wrong place, can cause, as the Monty Python crew would say, “just a flesh wound”, or so. (Ianz09)” That reality, Ianz09, is about as plausible as Avatar. Then there’s the online hysteria, an entry after a list of the world’s deadliest snakes reading: “Everything in Australia wants us dead, and everything has the capability to make that a reality. An antivenom was introduced in 1955 and no deaths attributed to treated redback spider bites have been reported since.” ![]() After seeking medical attention quickly, he made a full recovery.Īnd a red-back spider? From the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne: “Red-back spider bite is thought to be the commonest serious spider bite in Australia, particularly over the summer months. If it did, the seven year-old Perth boy who was bitten after a dugite crawled into his bedroom and wrapped around his arm while he slept, would not be alive. I mean, honestly: a dugite (a type of brown snake found only in the south of Western Australia) while dangerous does not kill in 10 seconds. It doesn’t help that the likes of Worthington (along with a legion of Poms and Kiwis) tend to blow things out of all proportion. In general, Avatar didn’t harm anyone and for the most part neither do the creatures in our bush. Three and a half million isn’t many, is it?Īnd that’s the problem with the rep garnered by Australia’s creepy crawlies: yes we have some of the world’s most dangerous, but like Worthington’s most famous effort, Avatar, they’re also unfairly maligned if you consider the context. Which is exactly what Tourism Australia did when their media monitors caught wind of The Late Show interview: prayed that no-one was watching.
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