Head to head
Taipan vs Black Mamba
The taipan of Australia and the black mamba of Africa are often set against each other as the most fearsome snakes alive. They are not closely related, but both are large, slender, fast, day-active elapids that hunt warm-blooded prey, and both have a formidable reputation.
| Taipan | Black Mamba | |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Elapidae (genus Oxyuranus) | Elapidae (genus Dendroaspis) |
| Range | Australia and southern New Guinea | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Length | Coastal ~2 m; inland ~1.8 m | 2.5 to 3 m, occasionally 4 m |
| Venom toxicity | Inland taipan: most toxic of any snake | Highly toxic, but less than either taipan |
| Speed | Fast | Among the fastest snakes, ~16 km/h |
| Hunting style | Bite, release, and track the dying prey | Bite, release, and track the dying prey |
| Untreated bite | Coastal taipan: usually fatal before 1955 | Almost always fatal |
| Human deaths today | Very rare; inland taipan has killed no one | Still significant in rural Africa |
Taipan vs Black Mamba: common questions
Which is more venomous, a taipan or a black mamba?
The taipan, and it is not close. By the standard laboratory measure of venom potency, the median lethal dose in mice, the inland taipan has the most toxic venom of any snake in the world, and the coastal taipan is also more toxic than the black mamba. The black mamba's venom is still extremely dangerous, a fast-acting mix that shuts down the nervous system and can kill within hours, but drop for drop it is weaker than either taipan's. The mamba's reputation as the deadliest snake comes not from venom toxicity but from its size, speed, nervous temperament, the large amount of venom it injects, and the historically poor access to antivenom across its range.
Which snake is more dangerous to people?
Historically the black mamba, because of where it lives. The mamba is spread across rural sub-Saharan Africa, often near villages and farmland, in regions where antivenom and hospitals have long been hard to reach, so untreated bites, which are usually fatal, have been common. The coastal taipan was just as lethal in Australia before its antivenom was developed in 1955, but Australia has a small, mostly urban population, excellent emergency medicine, and stocked antivenom, so taipan deaths are now very rare. The inland taipan, despite having the most toxic venom on Earth, lives in remote, almost unpopulated country, is shy, and has never caused a confirmed death.
Are taipans and black mambas related?
Only at the family level. Both are elapids, the group of front-fanged venomous snakes that also includes cobras, kraits, coral snakes, and sea snakes, but the taipans are in the Australian genus Oxyuranus and the mambas are in the African genus Dendroaspis, and the two lineages have been separate for a very long time. Their strong similarities, the slender fast body, the alert upright posture, the diet of mammals and birds, and the bite-and-release hunting method, are the result of convergent evolution, with each genus evolving to fill the role of a large, active, warm-prey-hunting snake on its own continent.