The rare mutation was spotted in the infamous death adder – one of the most venomous land snakes in the world – during a venom milking programme at the Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales
Staff at a reptile park in Australia were left stunned after discovering a venomous snake known to be “one of the most dangerous reptiles” with three sharp fangs as a result of anunprecedented genetic mutation.
The rare feature was spotted in the infamous death adder – one of the most venomous land snakes in Australia and globally – during a venom milking programme at the Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales. The snake usually only has two fangs, which it uses to prey on frogs, lizards and birds with its lightning-fast strike, capable of striking in under a tenth of a second.
“The Australian Reptile Park has no record of a three-fanged snake in the collection for at least 20 years. In that time, we have housed thousands of snakes and done hundreds of thousands of milkings,” the park said.
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Death adders are typically found across Australia’s Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. They hide underneath leaves and sand before striking their prey with their 6-8mm long fangs.
Their large fangs are unique as they are more mobile than those of other venemous types of snake. A disturbing 60% of their bites to humans were fatal before antivenom programmes were introduced.
Billy Collett, a park manager at the Australian Reptile Park said one death adder that has been part of the venom extraction programme for roughly seven years has now developed an extremely rare third fang. It was found next to one of the snake’s other fangs on the left side of its mouth.
“This is something we’ve never seen before,” he said in a statement to Live Science. “We’ve had this death adder in the venom program for about seven years, but only recently did we notice the third fang. I thought it would just shed off over time, but one year later, and it’s still there!”
Venemous snakes are known to replace their fangs constantly, with it initially thought the death adder may drop the third fang at some point. Collett told LiveScience: “I was milking it one day and noticed it had two fangs on one side.” He went on to say: “Then I noticed that when milking, venom comes out of both those fangs. It is bizarre.”
“This is very rare. I have never seen a functioning third fang like that,” he added. “It actually makes me really nervous milking this girl.”
The third fang appears to be serving a purpose too, allowing the reptile to produce “massive yields” of venom, making it even more deadly, the manager said. It produces roughly double the usual amount of venom for a two-fanged death adder – though it’s not clear whether this is a result of the extra fang or just that this individual produces more venom.
A spokesperson for the park told Live Science: “Unfortunately, we don’t actually know what has caused the third fang to develop and don’t currently have the facilities to run any tests”.
Mr Collet said the snake’s high venom yield is “actually helping us save lives”, despite the fact that it “might actually be the most dangerous death adder in the world”. The Australian Reptile Park at Somersby on the Central Coast of New South Wales houses up to 250 venomous snakes that are milked on a fortnightly basis as part of the centre’s venom programme.
“There have been 3 other fanged snakes found in Australia, but from what we can find, there have been no 3 fanged death adders recorded,” a park spokesperson said in a statement. The park, which has been operating for 20 years has milked hundreds of thousands of snakes.