Coastal taipan
Scientific name: Oxyuranus scutellatus (Peters, 1867)
Overview
The coastal taipan, or common taipan, is a species of extremely venomous snake in the family Elapidae. Described by Wilhelm Peters in 1867, the species is native to the coastal regions of northern and eastern Australia and the island of New Guinea. The second-longest venomous snake in Australia, the coastal taipan averages around 2.0 m (6.6 ft) long, with the longest specimens reaching 2.9 m (9.5 ft) in length. It has light olive or reddish-brown upperparts, with paler underparts. The snake is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
From the Wikipedia article “Coastal taipan”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Conservation status
Least concern on the IUCN Red List, as recorded on Wikidata, citing The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2.
Where it lives
The Catalogue of Life records it in: S Papua New Guinea, Indonesia (Irian Jaya),.
Common names
Names in other languages (5)
- Chinese
- 海岸太攀蛇
- German
- Taipan
- Indonesian
- Taipan pesisir
- Japanese
- タイパン
- Russian
- Тайпан
Related animals
Sources
-
Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names and range.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: The Reptile Database.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — conservation status, names in other languages. Q2321476, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “Coastal taipan”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — Denise Chan from Hong Kong, China, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
- Range map — RedGKS, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026