Wildlife In Pictures
p. 94 · Read in the full issue
More people die from the bite of the Papuan black snake (Pseudechis papuanus ) than from all the other snakes of Aus tralia and New Guinea combined, according to an attractive new book called Australian Wildlife by well-known Australian naturalist Eric Worrell.
TO provide serum to counteract the bite of this snake, which is found throughout southern Papua, hundreds of snakes are caught and taken to the Australian Reptile Park, at Gosford, New South Wales, which Worrell founded in 1938. There they are milked of their venom by being made to bite into a rubber diaphragm. The venom is ejected into a glass container.
After being processed, the venom is sent to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in Melbourne, where antivenene is made and sent to Papua.
Worrell’s book, which is full of information like this, contains nearly 200 striking photographs in black and white, and colour on pages measuring 8J in, by 11 in.
The photographs depict the best-known birds, mammals, reptiles and plants of Australia and Papua-New Guinea. Most of the information given is in the form of captions to the pictures. • Worrell is seen here handling the deadly Papuan snake. (AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE. Angus and Robertson. $4.50).