When Europeans colonised Tasmania they developed a hysterical fear of snakes but unwittingly provided them with the perfect food source, rabbits, which led to one venomous species growing into near 2-metre giants.
When Europeans settled in Tasmania they developed a profound fear of snakes, despite bringing with them an abundant food source that allowed the reptiles to grow into giants.
Almost every snake bite or death was reported in newspapers, and there were celebratory headlines when snakes were killed — no matter how big or small.Interactions with the island's three species of snakes were frequent because the bush was never far away from settlements and most tasks involved manual labour and collecting kindling for fires.
Mr Fearn said bounty schemes and poisons were a standard approach to get rid of anything that interfered with the colony's way of life. He said they all eventually became unstuck and died because it would only work if they were constantly exposed to venom. He said while there was no baseline data collected, it led to snake populations exploding and tiger snakes growing to enormous sizes.Flying into Hummocky and landing on the grass airstrip feels a bit like arriving at Jurassic Park."There are some photos from that period of these huge tiger snakes and enormously thick," Mr Fearn said.
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