The Inland Taipan, also known as the Fierce Snake, is native to Australia and is the most venomous snake in the world. The Taipan lives in grasslands, coastal heaths, grassy beach dunes and cultivated areas such as cane fields. The snake uses the deep cracks and fissures formed in the dry soil to escape predators and the searing heat.  Inland Taipan adapt to their environment by changing the colour of the skin during seasonal changes. They tend to be lighter in summer and darker in winter. This seasonal colour change serves in thermoregulation, allowing the snake to absorb more light (thence converted to heat) in the colder months.

The Taipan has excellent senses of smell and eyesight. It quickly moves in on its prey, strikes fast, draws back and waits for the poison to work. As soon as the poison has worked, the snake eats the prey. The Inland Taipan consumes predominantly small rodents, small birds and rats. They kill their prey by attacking in quick, rapid strikes injecting highly toxic venom into their victim.

The Inland Taipan is dark tan in colour, ranging from a rich, dark hue to a brownish olive-green (depending on season). Its back, sides and tail may be different shades of brown and grey, with many individual scales having a wide blackish edge. These dark-marked scales occur in diagonal rows so that the marks align to form broken chevrons of variable length that are inclined backward and downward. The lowermost lateral scales often have an anterior yellow edge. The dorsal scales are smooth and without keels. The round-snouted head and neck are usually noticeably darker than the body (glossy black in winter, dark brown in summer), the darker colour allowing the snake to heat itself while only exposing a smaller portion of the body at the burrow entrance. The eye is of average size with a blackish brown iris and without a noticeable coloured rim around the pupil. It has twenty-three rows of mid-body scales, between fifty-five and seventy divided subcaudal scales, and one anal scale. The Inland Taipan averages approximately two metres (about 6.6 feet) in length, although larger specimens have been found.

Despite its other common name (Fierce Snake), the Inland Taipan are not known to be particularly aggressive, but docile. They will strike if provoked, however, injecting their incomparably toxic venom. A single bite from the Inland Taipan contains enough venom to kill as many as 100 human adults or 250,000 mice. The average venom yield of this snake is 44 mg, with a yield of 110 mg being the largest recorded. Its venom is 50 times more toxic than that of most rattlesnakes and at least 200 - 400 times as toxic as a common cobra. The Inland Taipan has an extremely neurotoxic venom that can kill an adult human in as little as 45 minutes. Although highly venomous, it is a relatively timid snake, provided that it is left alone. Even so, if it is suspected that a bite from this snake has occurred, medical attention should be sought immediately. Although known as the most venomous land snake in the world, there have been no documented human fatalities. All known bites have been treated using antivenin.