View source for Dugite

{{Short description|Highly venomous snake endemic to Western Australia}}
{{Use Australian English |date=November 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates |date=November 2024}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Dugite
| image = Dugite (Pseudonaja affinis).png
| image_caption = A dugite on a walking path
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 20 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=Craig, M. |author2=Gaikhorst, G. |author3=Lloyd, R. |date=2017 |title=''Pseudonaja affinis'' |volume=2017 |page=e.T42495843A42495847 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T42495843A42495847.en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref>
| genus = Pseudonaja
| species = affinis
| authority = [[Albert Günther|Günther]], 1872
| subdivision_ranks = Subspecies
| subdivision = *''Pseudonaja affinis affinis'' <br><small>Günther, 1872</small>
*''Pseudonaja affinis exilis'' <br><small>[[Glen Milton Storr|Storr]], 1989</small>
*''Pseudonaja affinis tanneri'' <br><small>([[Eric Worrell|Worrell]], 1961)</small>
}}
The '''dugite''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|dj|uː|ɡ|aɪ|t}}; '''''Pseudonaja affinis''''') is a [[species]] of [[venomous]], potentially lethal [[snake]] endemic to [[Western Australia]], a member of the [[Family (biology)|family]] [[Elapidae]].
[[File:Caution sign for dugite snakes in the coastal dunes near Swanbourne Beach, Western Australia..JPG|thumb|Caution sign for dugite snakes in the coastal dunes near Swanbourne Beach in [[Swanbourne, Western Australia]].]]
The word dugite is an [[anglicisation]] of names for the snake in some dialects of the [[Nyungar language]], including {{lang|nys|dukayj}} and {{lang|nys|dukitj}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=dugite |website=Macquarie Dictionary |year=2024 |url=https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-12-03 }}</ref> However, another, probably [[cognate]] name, {{lang|nys|dobitj}}, has become the common name for dugites in Nyungar (a potential source of confusion, as {{lang|nys|dobitj}} is also used in some dialects to refer to other kinds of venomous snakes).
==Description==
The dugite is a venomous snake, considered dangerous. It is coloured grey, green, or brown. The colours vary widely between individuals and are an unreliable means of identifying the species. Black scales can be scattered over the body; their scales are relatively large with a semi-glossy appearance. The most distinguishing characteristic is the head that can be rather small and indistinct from the neck. A dugite's body is long and slender in build and can grow up to {{convert|2|m}} in total length (including tail), but the typical size is roughly {{convert|1.5|m}}.
==Distribution and habitat==
[[File:Map of Dugite Distribution Within Australia.gif|thumb|Dugite distribution within Australia]]
''P. affinis'' is found in southern parts of Western Australia and in remote coastal parts of western [[South Australia]].
The dugite occupies a wide variety of habitats ranging from coastal dunes and heathlands to shrub lands and woodlands. It also appears to thrive in heavily degraded habitats such as golf courses, industrial areas, and open agricultural farmlands.
The dugite has increased in population since the opening up of its natural habitats and introduction of the house mouse due to the mouse being a main food source for it. In the Perth metropolitan area, the dugite is one of the most common snakes found next to buildings. In areas of human population, the snake will take temporary shelter under concrete slabs, fibro sheeting, roofing tin, and such, although in more natural habitats, it will shelter under rocks and in abandoned termite mounds. It also burrows during the winter.
[[File:Dugite.jpg|alt=Large Dugite|left|thumb|Very large dugite (about {{cvt|2|m|disp=or}}) seen on road near Mt{{nbs}}Barker, Western Australia]]
==Behaviour==
In the wild, dugites may be sheltering beneath logs and rocks. When disturbed, they are very shy and often slither away, but they will defend themselves if cornered. The species is [[Diurnality|diurnal]]. On hot days, activity occurs mainly in the morning, and to a lesser extent in the afternoon.
== Diet ==
Like all snakes, ''P. affinis'' is [[Carnivore|carnivorous]], eating [[Lizard|lizards]], other snakes, [[Mouse|mice]] and [[Rat|rats]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dugite |url=https://perthzoo.wa.gov.au/animal/dugite |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=PerthZooWebsite}}</ref>
==Reproduction==
As with all [[Pseudonaja|brown snakes]], mating normally occurs between early September and late November. The dugite is an egg-laying ([[Oviparity|oviparous]]) snake, and typically deposits around 30 eggs and abandons them to self-incubate.  The eggs hatch after about 65 days.  Under optimal environmental conditions, the dugite has been known to lay two clutches during the same season.
==Envenomation==
The venom of ''P. affinis'' is potentially one of the most lethal in the world, causing [[Coagulopathy|coagulopathic]] and [[procoagulant]] effects.<ref>Judge RK, Henry PJ, d'Aprile AC, Lynch D, Jelinek G, Wilce MCJ, Wilce JA. 2002. [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ap/yo/2002/00000181/00000003/art09416 Identification of PLA2 and alpha-Neurotoxin Proteins in the Venom of ''Pseudonaja affinis'' (Dugite)]. ''[[Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology]]'' '''181''' (3): 184-191. (Publisher: Academic Press).</ref> Dugites generally avoid biting humans, but risks of encounters increase when they are most active during the mating season through October and November.<ref Name=ABC>{{cite news |title=Dugites love to live near people |first=Helena |last=Webb |date=2004-08-10 |work=ABC |url=http://www.abc.net.au/southwestwa/stories/s1173274.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080131112806/http://www.abc.net.au/southwestwa/stories/s1173274.htm |archive-date=2008-01-31 |access-date=2024-11-28 }}</ref>
The last human death attributed to a dugite was in August 2015 in [[South Fremantle, Western Australia|South Fremantle]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Woman dies from suspected snake bite in South Fremantle |date=2015-08-17 |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-17/woman-dies-from-suspected-snake-bite-in-south-fremantle/6703786 |access-date=2024-11-28 }}</ref> when a woman was bitten on her heel mid-afternoon while walking alone. She walked home and later collapsed whilst her husband was taking her to her car  to transport her to the hospital. The ambulance was called, arriving five minutes later, but medics were unable to revive her.{{cn |date=November 2024}}
In January 2011, a seven-year-old Perth boy was bitten and temporarily paralyzed after a dugite entered his bedroom and wrapped itself around his arm while he slept. After receiving immediate medical attention, he made a full recovery.
In December 2020, a three-year-old girl was bitten by a snake, believed to be a dugite, while playing in a courtyard at her grandmother's unit complex in Mandurah. Her grandmother quickly immobilised her and wrapped her legs in pressure bandages. The girl was treated with anti-venom in hospital and made a full recovery.<ref>{{cite news |last=De Poloni |first=Gian |title=Venomous snake bites three-year-old Lucia Carna, prompting first-aid lesson warning |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-24/snake-bites-three-year-old-girl-but-nanna-to-the-rescue/13007178 |access-date=23 December 2020 |work=ABC |date=23 December 2020}}</ref>
==Taxonomy==
The species was first described by [[Albert Günther]] in 1872.<ref>[[Albert Günther|Günther A]]. 1872. Seventh Account of new Species of Snakes in the Collection of the British Museum. ''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Fourth Series''  '''9''': 13-37 + Plates III-VI. (''Pseudonaja affinis'', new species, pp. 35-36 + Plate IV, Figure C).</ref> It is a member of the genus ''[[Pseudonaja]]'', sometimes referred to as brown snakes, contained in the family Elapidae.<ref name= ITIS>{{ITIS |taxon =''Pseudonaja affinis'' |id=700661}}</ref> The three [[subspecies]] descriptions currently accepted are:<ref>{{NRDB species|genus=Pseudonaja  | species= affinis}}.</ref>
*''Pseudonaja affinis affinis'' <small>Günther, 1872</small> — coastal mainland Western Australia
*''[[Pseudonaja affinis exilis]]'' <small>[[Glen Milton Storr|Storr]], 1989</small><ref>[[Glen Milton Storr|Storr GM]]. 1979. ''Dangerous Snakes of Western Australia, Third Edition''. Perth: Western Australian Museum Press. 24 pp.</ref> — mainland Western Australia and [[Rottnest Island]]
*''[[Pseudonaja affinis tanneri]]'' <small>([[Eric Worrell|Worrell]], 1961)</small><ref>[[Eric Worrell|Worrell E]]. 1961. A New Insular Brown Snake. ''Proceedings of the [[Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales]]'' '''79''': 56-58, Figures A-C. (''Demansia nuchalis tanneri'', new subspecies).</ref> — mainland Western Australia, [[Boxer Island]] and other islands
''Note'': A [[trinomial nomenclature|trinomial authority]] in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than ''Pseudonaja''.
== In literature ==
Convicted Irish [[Fenian]] and civil rights activist, [[John Boyle O'Reilly]], celebrated a [[the bush#Australia|bushman]]'s myth of the "dukite" in his popular poem "The Dukite Snake", which can be found in his 1878 collection ''Songs, Legends and Ballads'':
{{blockquote |text=<poem>
…
Now I'll change to a devil—ay, to a devil!
You needn't start; if a spirit of evil
Ever came to this world its hate to slake
On mankind, it came as a Dukite Snake.
''Like?'' Like the pictures you've seen of Sin,
A long red snake—as if what was within
Was fire that gleamed through his glistening skin.
And his eyes—if you could go down to hell,
And come back to your fellows here and tell
What the fire was like, you could find no thing,
Here below on the earth, or up in the sky,
To compare it to but a Dukite's eye!
Now, mark you, these Dukites don't go alone:
There's another near when you see but one;
And beware you of killing that one that you see
Without finding the other; for you may be
More than twenty miles from the spot that night;
When camped, but you're tracked by the lone Dukite;
That will follow your trail like Death or Fate
And kill you as sure as you killed its mate.
…
</poem>}}
The book ran to at least seven editions,<ref name="Pickering">{{cite book|last1=Pickering|first1=Sam|title=All My Days Are Saturdays|date=2014|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=9780826273277|pages=121–122|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5Q6BAAAQBAJ&q=dukite+snake&pg=PA121|accessdate=21 April 2018}}</ref> and the poem has been discussed<ref name="Pickering" /><ref name="Kinsella">{{cite journal|last1=Kinsella|first1=John|title=''A Close Reading of John Boyle O{{'}}Reilly{{'}}s {{'}}''The Dukite Snake: A West Australian Bushman{{'}}s Story''{{'}}''|journal=Southerly|date=2009|volume=69|issue=1|pages=88–107}}</ref> and anthologized<ref name="Wannan">{{cite book|last1=Wannan|first1=William Fielding|title=Bill Wannan selects Stories of Old Australia|date=1976|publisher=Sun Books|location=Melbourne, Victoria|isbn=0-7251-0231-4|pages=91–96}}</ref> since.
In Chapter 16 of M. L Stedman's ''The Light Between Oceans'', Septimus Pott's wife, Hannah Roennfeldt's mother, Ellen, a debutante from Perth, Western Australia died within an hour after being bitten above the ankle by a dugite.{{cn |date=March 2023}}
==See also==
*[[The Dugites]] - Late 1970s–early 1980s Perth band
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
*{{Cite journal|last1=Judge|first1=Roopwant K.|first2=Peter J.|last2=Henry|first3=Angela C.|last3=d'Aprile|first4=Dania|last4=Lynch|first5=George A.|last5=Jelinek|first6=Matthew C. J.|last6=Wilce|first7=Jacqueline A.|last7=Wilce| date=15 June 2002|title=Identification of PLA(2) and alpha-neurotoxin proteins in the venom of pseudonaja affinis (dugite)|journal=[[Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology]]|volume=181|issue=3|doi=10.1006/taap.2002.9416|PMID=12079427|via=[[ScienceDirect|Elsevier ScienceDirect]]|page=184}}
*{{Cite journal|last1=Herrmann|first1=R. P.|last2=Davey|first2=M. G.|last3=Skidmore|first3=P. H.|date=1 July 1972|title=The coagulation defect after envenomation by the bite of the dugite (demansia nuchalis affinis), a western Australian brown snake|journal=[[Medical Journal of Australia]]|volume=2|issue=4|page=183|doi=10.5694/j.1326-5377.1972.tb47229.x|PMID=4672644|via=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]]}}
*{{Cite web|website=[[Perth Zoo]]|publisher=[[Government of Western Australia]]|url=http://perthzoo.wa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Dugite-Fact-Sheet.pdf|access-date=13 May 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314050635/http://perthzoo.wa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Dugite-Fact-Sheet.pdf|archive-date=14 March 2016|title=Dugite}}
*{{Cite web|access-date=13 May 2016|url=http://australianmuseum.net.au/dugite|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241109194943/https://australian.museum/learn/animals/reptiles/dugite/|archive-date=9 November 2024|date=3 November 2023|first=Cecilie|last=Beatson|website=[[Australian Museum]]|title= Dugite, Pseudonaja affinis}}
*{{Cite web|website=Pilbara Pythons|access-date=13 May 2016|url=http://www.pilbarapythons.com/dugite.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401213244/http://www.pilbarapythons.com/dugite.htm|archive-date=1 April 2016|title=The Dugite Pseudonaja affinis (Gunther 1872)}}
*{{Cite web|website=David Manning's Animal Ark|access-date=13 May 2016|url=http://www.animalark.com.au/pdfs/SnakeAware.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160229030753/http://www.animalark.com.au/pdfs/SnakeAware.pdf |archive-date=29 February 2016|title=Snake Awareness: Perth and Western Australia}}
*{{Cite book|first1=Brian|last1=Bush|first2=Brad|last2=Maryan|first3=Robert|last3=Browne-Cooper|first4=David|last4=Robinson|year=2007|title= Reptiles and Frogs in the Bush: Southwestern Australia|publication-place=Crawley, Western Australia|publisher=[[UWA Publishing|University of Western Australia Press]]|ISBN=978-1-920694-74-6}}
*{{Cite book|author-link1=Glen Milton Storr|last1=Storr|first1=Glen Milton|last2=Johnstone|first2=Ronald Eric|date=1979|orig-date=Reprinted 1988|title=Dangerous Snakes of Western Australia|publication-place=Perth, Western Australi|publisher=[[Western Australian Museum]]|ISBN=0724479759}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Storr|first=Glen Milton|author-link=Glen Milton Storr|year=1989|title=A new Pseudonaja (Serpentes: Elapidae) from Western Australia|journal=[[Records of the Western Australian Museum]]|volume=14|issue=3|pages=421-423|url=https://museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/A%20NEW%20PSEUDONAJA%20(SERPENTES%20ELAPIDAE)%20FROM%20WESTERN%20AUSTRALIA.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193532/http://museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/A%20NEW%20PSEUDONAJA%20(SERPENTES%20ELAPIDAE)%20FROM%20WESTERN%20AUSTRALIA.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2016|access-date=29 November 2024}}
*{{Cite book|last=Storr|first=Glen Milton|author-link=Glen Milton Storr|year=2002|title=Snakes of Western Australia: Revised Edition|OCLC=50470978|ISBN=0-7307-1295-8|publication-place=Perth, Western Australia|publisher=[[Western Australian Museum]]}}
*{{Cite book|last=Swan|first=Gerry|year=1995|title=A Photographic Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Australia|publication-place=Frenchs Forest, New South Wales|publisher=[[New Holland Publishers]]|ISBN=1-85368-585-2}}
{{refend}}
==External links==
* [http://www.avru.org/general/general_dugite.html  Includes poison - Venom information]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040903142917/http://www.australianfauna.com/australiansnakes.php  Australian Snakes]
{{subject bar |auto=y}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q3061043}}
[[Category:Pseudonaja]]
[[Category:Reptiles of Western Australia]]
[[Category:Reptiles described in 1872]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Albert Günther]]
[[Category:Venomous snakes]]
[[Category:Snakes of Australia]]