A WOMAN says she is still shaking after her run in with a taipan, one of world’s deadliest snakes.
Cairns sales assistant Monique Harris was greeted by the 1.8m coastal taipan as she stepped out of the bathroom in her Caravonica home about 3.30pm yesterday.
“I was getting out of the shower and this big bloody thing was hissing at me,” she told The Cairns Post.
“Then I just jumped onto the bed and waited for it to move from the doorway.
“It eventually went into another room and I raced to my neighbour’s to call for help. It was very scary.”
The venom from the killer snake attacks the central nervous system, with bite victims facing death within minutes if a pressure bandage is not applied to the bite straight away.
Even if a pressure bandage is applied, victims need to have antivenom within an hour of being bitten to survive.
It’s believed no one bitten by a coastal taipan has survived without receiving antivenom.
Cairns Snake Removals owner David Walton, who was called to retrieve the reptile, said it was the second coastal taipan he’s removed in eight years.
“If it bites me, I’m in a wheelchair for a very long time,” he said.
“To be quite honest, if I had to shift a taipan every day, I would
retire.
“They’re extremely aggressive and extremely accurate.”
In 2007, Tom Parkin – a then wildlife handler at Hartley’s Creek Crocodile Farm – lapsed into a coma after being bitten by a 2m taipan on an expedition in remote Cape York.