The Biggest Coastal Taipan Known
Photo: Simon Fearn
The Coastal Taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) is the largest species from the elapid family of snakes in Australia. Some texts say it grows to over 300cm. Worrell (1963), for example, notes, "… Length may exceed ten feet; six feet is average". However, none of the many specimens held in museum collections in Australia exceeds 300 cm.
Professor Rick Shine, University of Sydney, measured all the Coastal Taipans in museum collections in the early 1980s. The largest one, a male, had a snout-vent length of 226 cm. This would have a total length of about 260 cm. No new extra large Coastal Taipans were lodged in Australian museum research collections till 'Terrence' died.
Terrence was the 'pet' of Joe Sambono Jnr, a friend to herpetologists from the Queensland Museum. Terrence, with a snout-vent length of 242.5 cm and a total length of 290 cm, died after seven and a half years in captivity. (Born about 5 March, 1994, died 29 September, 2000). He had been raised 'out of the egg', by Joe. Joe was very sad that Terrence had died. However, Joe's curatorial friends at the Museum were elated to receive such a large specimen, when one was needed for the public display programme. When Terrence died, he weighed 6.2 kg. At 290 cm, he was the largest Coastal Taipan whose length was measured, not just estimated. The measurement can be checked by anyone interested, because the specimen is in the research collection of the Queensland Museum.
At the Queensland Museum, Terrence was moulded and cast in a life-like pose for display. The cast, painted in exquisite detail by Museum Preparator Alison Hill, is now a feature of the exhibition, Wildlife of Cape York Peninsula. This can be seen in the Cooktown Interpretive Centre, overlooking the restored, historic botanic gardens in Cooktown, north-eastern Queensland.