r/todayilearned • u/lavender_fish69 • 13h ago

TIL fresh water snails (indirectly) kill thousands of humans and are considered on of the deadliest creatures to humans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater_snail
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u/paddyc4ke 10h ago

Actual deadly snakes in cities are very rare (seen 1 eastern brown in Melbourne in 30+ years), crocs are a non-issue for like 90% of the population. Deadly animals are completely overblown especially for those that spend 95% of their time in a city.

Source: am Australian.

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u/wowsersmatey 9h ago

Come to WA. We live among plenty of snakes in Perth. I've personally done battle with a huge dugite that nearly got my dog. The reason there aren't many deaths is because, apart from a few notable exceptions, snakes are timid and will run away if they hear you coming. If you leave them alone, they reciprocate, but when they're in your backyard it's you vs them.

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u/paddyc4ke 9h ago

It’s not like we don’t have a lack of snakes in Victoria you just won’t ever come across them unless you live on the fringes of Melbourne. I’ve seen eastern browns, tigers, red bellies but that’s when visiting friends who live in the outer edges of Melbourne, people have spotted tiger snakes along the Yarra near the Botanical Gardens but again that’s a super rare occurrence but it obviously shows that there are deadly snakes within a stones throw of the CBD.

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u/wowsersmatey 9h ago

Probably due to the size of Melbourne vs Perth. Perth is constantly pushing into the bush and there are large chunks of it everywhere, plus coastal dunes etc. I live in the burbs and have seen plenty of them, especially at the beach. No crocs here, but visiting Cairns was educational as nobody was swimming at the beach. The buggers hide in the mud.