G'day, I'm Jesse Crowe, The Travelling Scientist, here at my home in The Otways in Victoria,
Australia.
Now I've just been on a bush walk and while I was out there, I had an interesting thought...
"I COULD DIE OUT HERE"!
Okay maybe that was a little bit exaggerated, but it's no secret, Australia's got some of
the deadliest creatures in the world.
We've got the most venomous snakes in the world.
The Inland Taipan is number one, and it can kill a human in under 30 minutes.
We've also got the Coastal Taipan, the Brown Snake, the Tiger Snake, we've even got one
called the Death Adder which, ironically, isn't actually that deadly.
We've also got the Funnel Web Spider and the Red Back Spider, they'll kill you too.
But don't worry, you could always just avoid the bush and go swimming instead...just remember
that we have the Box Jellyfish which causes death in under five minutes.
There is also the Stone Fish and the Marbled Cone Snail, they're also both pretty deadly.
And the Blue Ringed Octopus, it's camouflaged in rock pools and it causes paralysis almost
instantly, and there's no anti-venom for that guy.
Heck even our Platypus is venomous!
It's not deadly to humans, but the pain can be so excruciating that even morphine won't
help you.
Soo maybe don't go swimming with a Platypus.
We've also got plenty of Sharks, they're not venomous but they'll kill you.
And Crocodiles.
There is Salt Water Crocodiles which can live in fresh water, and Fresh Water Crocodiles
which can live in salt water...go figure.
But one thing that I want to point out is that all of these Australian animals, these
deadly Australian icons, they're so rare.
I mean, they're out there, but we almost never have to deal with them.
Around the world people paint Australia as this crazy dangerous place where we fight
for our lives every day against these deadly creatures, when the truth is...it's actually
not that bad.
Sharks only kill a couple of Australians every year, and since the year 2000, less than 40
people have been killed by snakes.
You're more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to be killed by one of these
animals.
And to make up for all of these dangerous animals, we've also got some of the coolest
animals in the world.
The Kangaroo for example, there's more kangaroos in Australia than there are humans, and you
can even eat the bloody things!
Have you ever tried Kangaroo?
Beautiful Mate!
Then there's the Koala, now this thing might kill you...with CUTENESS!
Koala's sleep for 20 hours a day, and they live off a diet of Eucalyptus leaves, which
are poisonous to almost every other animal...bizarre.
We've even got Emus, the second largest birds in the world.
This bird can run really fast, it just can't fly.
So next time you think about Australian wildlife, forget about all of the deadly buggers and
focus on the cool creatures that you're far more likely to run into.
But anyway animals aside, check out the beautiful bush walk I did this afternoon...
Hey guys, thanks so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed this video.
Subscribe for more Travelling Science every week, and I'll see you guys next time.