TAIPAN STRIKES

Man goes to hospital after taipan strikes

SNAKE experts and medical authorities are warning Cairns residents to be watchful after a man survived a bite on the chest by one of the country’s most venomous species.

The 67-year-old man, believed to be a snake handler, was yesterday continuing to recover in hospital after the coastal taipan bit him on Saturday night.

The reptile is often regarded as the most dangerous in Aus- tralia. Yorkeys Knob man David Pitt, 77, died from a taipan bite in December last year.

He was bitten twice on his foot when he found the snake in a bedroom and tried to remove it using a pair of kitchen tongs.

Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor Rita Kelly said the man had been “quite unstable” when they arrived at a Bentley Park home about 7.40pm on Saturday. She said he had been able to identify the breed and paramedics administered antivenene at the scene before taking him to hospital.

“As the weather warms up snakes are getting closer to homes,” she said.

“We have to remember we live in an area where we need to be familiar with our surroundings and these are surroundings where there are a lot of venomous snakes.

“You should treat every snake as serious.

“If you’re bitten the key is to stay where you are and seek help.”

Cairns snake catcher Matt Hagan said Bentley Park was known snake territory, although he had never caught a taipan in the area.

He said he received a spate of call-outs for venomous snakes over the weekend.

These included two mating whip snakes in Smithfield and red belly black snakes at Redlynch and Caravonica.

Mr Hagan said most of the taipans he had caught were around the Smithfield and Yorkeys Knob areas, particularly spots where there were cane fields near suburbia.

“When they were building North Point (estate) at Smithfield, when they were doing the land clearing, we caught a cluster of them,” he said.