In what looked to be real David and Goliath battle, a harmless green tree frog has gone head to head with a Coastal Taipan (Oxyuranus) With the humble frog making dinner of the deadly snake.
Townsville Snake Catcher Jamie Chapel posted on his Townsville Snake Take Away and Chapel Pest Control Facebook page.
"I just witnessed the end of the coolest thing ever!!!! A green tree frog eating a Coastal Taipan, the 3rd most Venomous snake in the world at Stuart tonight...
I couldn’t save the snake but I hope frog survives as it was bitten multiple times while it was eating it."
Even though the frog was bitten several times by the Taipan the frog has survived. With Jamie posting updates on his Facebook page
Townsville - Snake Take Away and Chapel Pest Control Update on Frog......
It’s still alive and croaking this morning
Townsville - Snake Take Away and Chapel Pest Control Update number 2
Frog is still alive and has buried himself under some nice cool sphagnum moss it looks a little off colour but it’s alive. In this photo where the light marks are this is where it was bitten, you can now see the holes from the fang marks as well.
Jamies social media post has gone viral with 982 shares and the frog getting some fan comments from around Australia.
"This frog is my hero. Xo"
"Please give the beautiful frog a kiss from me and I hope it recovers well."
"Frog 1 - Snake 0"
"frog is def a badass"
"Winner winner snake dinner, good work Frog"
"Even our frogs are tough AF in Australia"
According to the Australian Museum "Untreated bites have a mortality rate of 100% as the coastal taipan always delivers a fatal dose of venom (an average bite delivers 10-12x the lethal dose of venom for a human adult male), and medical professionals recommend that victims seek immediate medical attention even for apparently minor bites."
In his book Venom, which explores the development of a taipan antivenom in Australia in the 1940s and 1950s, author Brendan James Murray argues that only one person is known to have survived an Oxyuranus bite without antivenom: was George Rosendale, a Guugu Yimithirr aboriginal bitten at Hope Vale in 1949.
