Australians are being warned to brace for increasing encounters with venomous snakes, as the deadly reptiles move closer to homes.
According to an international research project, snakes are increasingly migrating towards densely populated coastlines with rising temperatures making traditional inland habitats unsuitable.
The shift expected is throughout Australia’s east coast including areas across Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
Australia has already felt the pressure of this trend in 2024, which was confirmed as the warmest year on record by the World Meteorological Organisation, the country saw a 35 per cent surge in emergency calls for snake bites.
During the spring and early summer of that year alone, September 1 and December 20, the NSW poison information centre received 320 calls for snake bites.
Approximately 400,000 disabilities are caused by snakebites each year with a further 138,000 leading to death.
The World Health Organisation is aiming to reduce these numbers by 50 per cent by in the next four years.
The new study, published in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, tracked on the habitat of all 508 medically important venomous snake species, those capable of causing severe morbidity, mortality or long term disability.
It projected how their range will shift by 2050 and 2090.
“Before this study surprisingly little was known about the exact distribution of many medically important snakes, even some widespread ones that cause many bites,” the study notes.
In Australia, the top three medically important venomous snake species include the inland taipan, the eastern brown snake and the coastal taipan.
The research team found the eastern brown snake as having the highest overlap with humans, followed by the coastal taipan.
The eastern brown snake is the second most venomous snake in the world and the leading suspect for Australia’s fatal snake bites.
According to the study, due to increasing temperatures the snake’s range is expected to expand south along the highly populated east coast by 2050.
“Our predictions can be used to decide where to stockpile which antivenene, how to ensure adequate capacity of individual health facilities, how to improve health care accessibility of remote at-risk communities, and where to focus conservation efforts for threatened snake species,” the study authors said.
