The most dangerous animals in Australia and New Zealand

Travelling to Australia or New Zealand is one of the last adventures on Planet Earth. At least if you are a traveler and venture into the almost untouched zones of the Australian outback. What you can expect there has already been shown impressively and partly funny in many movies, as in the case of the cinema hit from the 80s, Crocodile Dundee. Here a small crocodile of 5m and there one of the many highly poisonous snakes, of which there is a whole row in Down Under. Some of the most dangerous snakes are not only found in the inland, but also in the offshore waters or in the rivers themselves. Let’s take a look at which animals one should be particularly careful of as an adventure traveller in Australia and also in neighbouring New Zealand.

Dangerous animals in the sea off Australia

Among the poisonous fish, which can hardly be recognized because of their clever camouflage, are the Scorpaenidae, the stonefish, which hide in the sand. Their poison on the back spines is highly potent and can have extremely unpleasant health consequences if they come into direct contact with each other.

Even more dangerous is the poison of the Conus textile, in German weaving cone shells. The beautiful snail shells are also a welcome souvenir. It’s just stupid that if there’s still a living snail inside, it shoots a small arrow filled with a highly toxic nerve poison, which has fatal health effects. And even worse… There is no antidote yet. Other dangerous animals, which lurk in Australian waters, are besides the various shark species – shark attacks on surfers is constantly reported -, the Box Jellyfish, also known in German as dice jellyfish and the blue-ringed octopus.

The nettle poisons of the cube jellyfish are among the most potent poisons in the animal kingdom. And also the nerve poison of the beautiful little jellyfish, the tetrodotoxin, is sometimes so strong that it has deadly effects. The mini-small Carukia barnesi jellyfish, whose sting can cause the life-threatening Irukandji syndrome, is barely visible and has hardly been researched.

The most dangerous land animal species in Australia

As in the water, on land there are large and small highly poisonous animal species in Australia that are so dangerous that direct contact with them is anything but fun. The biggest lump is certainly the gigantic and fearsome saltwater crocodile, also known as the bar crocodile, which is mainly found in the sea, brackish water, rivers and swamps and spits pretty much everything that fits into its mouth.

Such a male bum can be 6m and more long. Even buffalos with several hundred kilos are on the menu of the voracious robbers. Far smaller are the snakes in the Australian bush. But some of them are so poisonous that even a small bite injury is enough to get into agony.

Let’s start with one of the most poisonous of all, the Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis). Despite its harmless sounding name, the poison snake is considered to be the second most poisonous land snake in the world. What is more, the snake is so widespread in Australia that hardly any region is not populated by it. In addition it reacts extremely nervously and aggressively and bites fast.

If you want to experience the most poisonous snake in the world in its natural ambience, you can stay in Australia, where the Inland Tapan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) is at home. The snake usually only meets them in West Queensland. A load of taipoxin-brand nerve poison is enough to kill an amazing 250,000 mice or 150,000 rats.

The Sydney funnel web spider (Atrax robustus) moves on eight legs. As the name implies, the spider, whose bite can lead to life-threatening injuries, lives in the immediate vicinity of Sydney. And that makes them all the more dangerous, because contact with humans is inevitable.

Dangerous animals in New Zealand

In the country there are less or apart from the rare Katipo spider hardly any dangerous animal species. In New Zealand more than 1100 spider species live from the worldwide known 40 000 spider species. Only a few are slightly poisonous. However, the usual suspects also cavort along the New Zealand coast in the sea. Although from shark attacks from the Kiwi country actually as well as never anything is to be experienced. Rather you can get angry on the beaches with sand flies, wasps and the parasites with the name Giardia, which provoke however “only” a strong thin shit and are otherwise harmless.