Austrelaps superbus
Silhouette: SeismicShrimp · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The lowland copperhead or lowlands copperhead (Austrelaps superbus) is a venomous snake species in the family Elapidae, found in southeastern Australia, including Tasmania. It is commonly referred to as the copperhead, but is not closely related to the American copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix. If provoked, the lowland copperhead is a dangerous snake with neurotoxic venom, which can kill an adult human if correct first aid is not applied promptly.
The lowland copperhead is generally 1-1.5 m (3–5 feet) long. Their colour varies a great deal, from a coppery mid-brown to yellowish, reddish, grey or black. The copper head colouring that gave rise to the common name is not always present. Its venom has been measured at 0.5 mg/kg subcutaneous.
It is found in southeastern Australia, including Tasmania. A. superbus has a preference for areas of low vegetation near water bodies where it hunts for frogs, lizards and snakes, including smaller specimens of its own species. It has been found in sandstone ridgetop woodland in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, where it is becoming rare, due to increasing fires and the spread of urban settlements... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wilsons Promontory National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Great Otway National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Grampians National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇦🇺 Australia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lowlands Copperhead sighting in Melbourne on a given day, based on 97 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 11th most-seen of the 23 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July to April
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lowlands Copperhead in Melbourne on a given day, against under 5% in May and June, the lowest months.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lowlands Copperhead sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Melbourne, in our data
Melbourne is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Lowlands Copperhead sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Elapidae
The closest relatives of the Lowlands Copperhead that you can see in Melbourne (family Elapidae, Elapid Snakes) are Eastern Tiger Snake (about 10%) and Eastern Brown Snake (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lowlands Copperhead is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Melbourne (97 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
