If the taipan was very careful not to get bitten during the scuffle, there’s a good chance it could overpower the mamba – watch out, black mamba! Sizing up the opponent And although mambas can grow very long and are very fast, taipans have more muscle and are probably stronger. The mamba has the edge when it comes to venom – watch out, inland taipan! Birds are more closely related to crocodiles than crocodiles are to lizards! This means that a venom that works well against birds probably works well against most other reptiles, including snakes. In fact, even though birds have feathers and (usually) fly, they’re actually just a special group of reptiles. If you’ve seen Jurassic Park (if you haven’t, stop whatever you’re doing and see it immediately!) you know birds are descended from dinosaurs.Ĭurious Kids: How do snakes make an 'sssssss' sound with their tongue poking out? But the way they do that – by interfering with the rat’s blood – probably won’t work well against the mamba.īlack mamba venom is designed for rapidly taking down birds as well as mammals, and this turns out to be an important point. We have good reason to believe taipan venom is specially designed for taking down rats as quickly as possible. Black mamba venom, on the other hand, is extremely fast-acting. Taipan venom is extremely strong – it’s the most powerful snake venom there is, at least against mice.
Black mambas and inland taipans are both famously venomous, so their bites pack a serious punch!īut which venom is the more powerful weapon? Which one will give its owner the edge? When snakes fight because one thinks the other would make a yummy snake snack, they fight dirty, by any means necessary, both wrestling and biting. When boy snakes fight to impress the girls, they usually just wrestle, wrapping around and around each other to see who’s strongest, as each tries to pin his opponent’s head to the ground.Ĭurious Kids: What happens if a venomous snake bites another snake of the same species? Snakes have two main ways of fighting: they can wrestle and they can bite. The stage is set, the combatants have entered the ring, there can be only one winner. They’re the top dogs of their turf and, once they become adult snakes, there aren’t too many other animals that want to tangle with them. In fact, black mambas and inland taipans are like the “alpha” snakes of Africa and Australia. This means under natural circumstances, the two species would never meet. Before we get to the fun bit, we should note that black mambas are from Africa and inland taipans are from Australia.