t is lightning fast, can reach head height and has an awful venom and character to go with it.
In North America, rattlesnakes reign supreme and no Hollywood shitkicker would be complete without Big John or some other bone- head jerking out his hawg’s leg and blowing the crap out of a rattlesnake. The two largest are the Western Diamondback and the Eastern Diamondback, there are several other species.
People rightly fear the copperhead and the cottonmouth, both with nasty venom and often irritable temperaments, usually after getting hit with empty beer cans, etc. Both neurotoxin and haemotoxin makes an appearance.
The internet is full of enquiries about which is the world’s most venomous and/or deadly snake, spider, scorpion et al. This is really like the old tiger/lion argument (which would win in a fight). In the case of snakes there are so many variables, that a definitive answer will change according to the chronicler and his sources. What I will say is there are several contenders:
1) Black Mamba
3) King Cobra
4) Eastern Diamondback
7) Brown Snake
8) Beaked Sea Snake
Some; like the Gaboon Viper, doesn't make this list; -if it was aggressive, it would be number one. Lots of variables like this and one expert's advice confounds another...
Well to paraphrase Hemingway, “There were a few important things to be said,” but I am afraid my nocturnal musing of exactly why some areas have snakes with one type of venom, yet another, a separate type, could not be answered for your - or my - satisfaction. I will follow up on this because there must be a reason why Oz's snakes have one kind of venom only and most are on the most deadly list, and that is the oldest, most stable continent...