An interesting fact about Venomous snakes is that they don’t have an endless supply of venom. The venom that snakes evolved has been designed for hunting their prey, not for defence. This means that their hunting style is reliant on the venom working. If they don’t have any venom they won’t be able to successfully hunt. A Venomous snake will strike at its prey and let the venom do its work. This is different to pythons and other non-venomous snakes who will constrict their prey. Most snakes (depending on the size and time of the year) will only eat once a week or once every two weeks. This means they have evolved to give themselves a long period of time to develop more venom to replace what they have used.
What does this mean for you? If the snake was to bite you then it will have to wait to develop more venom before it can feed again. So a snake will generally only bite a human or non-prey animal like a dog or a cat in a life threatening situation. This can range from the snake being attacked by a dog, to it simply being startled enough when you step on it or put your hand near it. The snakes personal experience plays a huge part in this. Some snakes have no reason to be fearful of humans so will be very docile. Other snakes may have been attacked previously, or been stuck in a chicken coop or bathroom for days and is desperate for escape, making them very grumpy.
Yes snakes can be docile.
Yes snakes can be aggressive.
When dealing with any wild snake it is best to contact a professional who has experience reading snake behaviour.
Because of the snakes limited venom supply, most snakes will give a few warning strikes to inform you to back off. If you don’t back off it may interoperate that as life threatening and decide to defend itself.
Remember Snakes are wild animals and think like wild animals. They will try and escape in a direction that is away from you first. If the snake is cornered, and its only way out is through you, then that is the way it is going to want to go.
Blue-tongues and Stumpy-tail lizards:
There is a common saying that if you have these lizards around you won’t have snakes. This is false, snakes like tiger snakes actually eat lizards.
Snakes always travel in pairs.
This is a common misconception. Snakes keep to themselves and can be very territorial, when it comes to other snakes. Smaller snakes are often an easy meal for a larger snake. Most snakes leave their children as soon as they are born or hatched from the eggs (depending on the species).