Inland taipan
Oxyuranus microlepidotus (Mccoy, 1879)
The inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), also called the fierce snake, western taipan or small-scaled snake, is a reptile in the snake family Elapidae, subfamily Hydrophiinae. It is a medium-sized snake with an adult body mass of 6.1 kg, and checklists record it in Australia.
Quick facts about the inland taipan
Its clutch size is 14, with 1.5 clutches per year and an egg incubation period of 69 days. It reaches sexual maturity at 264 days, has a lifespan of 14.3 years, and is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 6.11 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- 1.44 msrc for Length
- Lifespan
- 14.3 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Carnivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 23 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- desert, shrublandsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 69 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 14 – 16.2src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 8.48 months – 9.66 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1 – 2src for Litters or clutches a year
- Reproduction
- Eggssrc for Reproduction
- Active
- By day (diurnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
How big is the inland taipan?
Photos of the inland taipan
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the inland taipan live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The inland taipan is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ReptileDB (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the inland taipan?
The inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), also commonly known as the western taipan, small-scaled snake, or fierce snake, is a species of extremely venomous snake in the family Elapidae. It is endemic to semiarid regions of central‑eastern Australia. Aboriginal Australians living in areas where Karnic languages are spoken refer to this species as dandarabilla.
The species was formally described by Frederick McCoy in 1879 and William John Macleay in 1882, but for almost 90 years, it remained poorly known to science; no additional specimens were collected and virtually nothing was added to knowledge of its biology until the species was rediscovered in 1972.
Based on the median lethal dose (LD50) of its venom in laboratory mice, the inland taipan is widely regarded as the most venomous snake in the world; its venom is substantially more toxic, drop-for-drop, than that of any tested sea snake. It is also considered to possess the most toxic venom of any reptile when tested on human heart cell cultures. The inland taipan is a specialised predator of mammals, and its venom is particularly adapted to killing warm-blooded prey. A single bite has been estimated to contain sufficient venom to kill more than 100 adult humans.
Despite this extreme potency, the inland taipan is usually shy and reclusive, with a generally placid disposition, and it rarely comes into contact with people because it inhabits remote areas. By contrast, the coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) is often considered the more dangerous species in practice, largely because of its behaviour when it encounters humans and its proximity to populated coastal regions. The word "fierce" in one of the inland taipan's common names refers to the strength of its venom rather than its temperament.
From the Wikipedia article “Inland taipan” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inland_taipan&oldid=1384152601), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the inland taipan endangered?
The inland taipan is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.
How is the inland taipan classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classReptilia
- orderSquamata
- familyElapidae
- genusOxyuranus
- SpeciesOxyuranus microlepidotus (Mccoy, 1879)
Synonyms Diemenia ferox, Diemenia microlepidota, Oxyuranus scutellatus microlepidotus
Other names and names in other languages (38)
- Fierce snakeEnglish
- Small-scaled snakeEnglish
- Western taipanEnglish
- تايبان الداخليArabic
- ইনলেণ্ড টাইপেনAssamese
- континентален тайпанBulgarian
- ইনল্যান্ড টাইপ্যানBangla
- taipan menšíCzech
- ZornschlangeGerman
- Australischer InlandtaipanGerman
- KleinschuppenschlangeGerman
- SchreckensotterGerman
- Westlicher TaipanGerman
- Taipan del interiorSpanish
- SisemaataipanEstonian
- AavikkotaipaaniFinnish
- Taïpan du désertFrench
- טאיפן פנים-יבשתיHebrew
- Kopneni taipanCroatian
- Kispikkelyű tajpánHungarian
- Taipan pedalamanIndonesian
- Taipan dell'internoItalian
- ナイリクタイパンJapanese
- 내륙타이판Korean
- Žemyninis taipanasLithuanian
- ഇൻലാൻഡ് തായ്പാൻMalayalam
- ØrkentaipanNorwegian Bokmål
- InnlandstaipanNorwegian Bokmål
- Tajpan pustynnyPolish
- اوکسی یورانس مائکرولیپیڈوٹسWestern Panjabi
- Тайпан МаккояRussian
- Celinski tajpanSlovenian
- InlandstaipanSwedish
- உள்நாட்டு தைப்பன்Tamil
- งูไทปันโพ้นทะเลThai
- Тайпан континентальнийUkrainian
- Rắn Taipan nội địaVietnamese
- 內陸太攀蛇Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistITISWikidataIUCN Red List
Relatives of the inland taipan
Other species in the same genus Oxyuranus.
Common taipan
Oxyuranus scutellatus
Central range taipan
Oxyuranus temporalis
CompareInland taipan vs Common taipanInland taipan vs Central range taipan
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the inland taipan?
The inland taipan is a reptile, a snake in the family Elapidae and subfamily Hydrophiinae.
How heavy is the inland taipan?
An adult inland taipan has a body mass of 6.1 kg, placing it in the medium size class (1 to 25 kg).
Which countries is the inland taipan recorded in?
Checklists record the inland taipan in Australia.
Is the inland taipan endangered?
No. The inland taipan is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does the inland taipan live?
The inland taipan has a lifespan of 14.3 years, with values up to 15.6 years reported.
How many eggs does the inland taipan lay?
The inland taipan has a clutch size of 14, with 1.5 clutches per year and an incubation period of 69 days.
Who named the inland taipan?
The scientific name Oxyuranus microlepidotus is attributed to (Mccoy, 1879).
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/inland-taipan
“Inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/inland-taipan.
@misc{inland_taipan_2026,
title = {Inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/inland-taipan},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}