Western Desert Taipan (1/4)

Squamata: Elapidae

Oxyuranus temporalis  

Driving along Great Central Road ninety kilometres west of Warakurna in outback Western Australia we passed a snake on the road. I turned around for a closer look.

After being good enough to pose for a couple of photos, the snake took off at speed and immediately disappeared in the bushes and low vegetation at the side of the road.

It had large eyes and an angular looking head. I wondered what it was, assuming that most probably it was one of the brown snakes and hoping that a closer examination of the photos would help identify it.

Ten days later in Perth, while staying with my daughter Sarah and her partner Amin, Amin raised the possibility of the snake being a Western Desert Taipan, a species first identified in 2007 and still only known from a few specimens.

Later, herpetologist J Lindley McKay, after examining my photographs, confirmed that this identification appears to be correct.

Awersome!