The Sonora vs the Outback

Nature Talk
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Much has been said about how dangerous Australia and the Outback is. But do Americans truly have anything to fear? We can predict the answer based on the fact that this thread even exists, but I still want to explore the question anyway.

Reptiles: The inland taipan is considered the most venomous snake on Earth, and is the Outback’s claim to fame. But it has never killed anyone. The southwest’s two most infamous venomous reptiles are the rattlesnake and Gila monster. Several people are killed by rattlesnakes each year. So in absolute toxicity the Outback wins, but I’m not sure on actual danger. Though the Outback also has monitor lizards like Varanus giganteus that can exceed a meter in length and these can mess you up real bad, though are unlikely to kill you.

Mammals: Historically this would have been a clear win for the Sonora but most large mammals have been extirpated from the area, so I’m not sure on the current situation. I would still give the win to the Sonora because wolves, bears, jaguars could potentially move back in the future where as Australia’s large mammals are permanently dead and gone.

Plants: Again, not that well versed in plants, but for what it’s worth the Sonora has a cactus literally called the jumping cholla because the spikes get into you so easily its like they’re jumping at you. And the stuff is everywhere. Additionally the Sonora has the Saguaro cactus, which certainly wins aura points. The Outback has Spinifex grass as its principled spiny plant. I’m not a botanist, but at a cursory glance the cacti definitely look like they would do more damage to you.

Insects: Pretty clear Sonora W. Pepsis, among the most painful of all insect stings, also large and intimidating to boot. Pogonomyrmex, which have the most toxic venom of any insect drop per drop. Also velvet ants which have notoriously painful stings. The best Australia has is Myrmecia which can also deliver fairly painful stings, but is surpassed I think by the Sonora having harvster ants, velvet ants, and tarantula hawks at once. Oh the Sonora desert also has kissing bugs that can give chagas disease on top of that.

Arachnids: Sonora wins by an absolute landslide. Hadrurus get considerably larger than any Australian scorpion, and Centruroides is far more dangerous. Sonora beats the Outback in scorpions in both style and substance. No tarantula is really dangerous, but the Sonora has far more species of tarantulas than all of Australia. The Sonora desert has vinegaroons and solifugids which Australia lacks entirely. Really all the outback has going for it in terms of scary arachnids is redbacks but the Sonora has black widows so that’s even. Paralysis ticks and funnel web spiders are coastal/temperate animals that do not occur in the outback (meanwhile the Sonora has several tick species).

Centipedes: Both countries have giant centipedes, but in Australia Cormocephalus and Ethmostgimus seem to be largely coastal species. The most common outback large centipede is Scolopendra morsitans which is smaller than both Scolopendra heros and Scolopendra polymorpha

So which desert is scarier? Well, it’s a subjective answer, but the Sonora desert certainly seems to exceed the Outback in many metrics and at least equals it otherwise. So why has the Outback acquired such a reputation among American when we have our very own “Outback” within our borders?

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Nondescript.elapid snakes, maybe?

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Elapid snakes are perhaps a genuine thing in Australia’s favor. But I find the fearmongering of Australia’s land arthropods to be pretty ridiculous. Away from the outback vs sonora comparison specifically and accounting for the whole country, the southeast USA has lots of big freaky bugs

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I don’t put a lot of merit into these kind of comparisons as they’re so nebulous/subjective and they also tend to foster unhelpful ‘man vs nature’ and ‘nature is something to be feared’ kind of outlooks, and by far the most significant dangers to people in these kind of regions are actually the environment/weather conditions themselves (extreme heat, lack of water, etc), but some points for clarification:

Australia has a significant number of highly venomous elapid snakes across the outback that can and have killed numerous people, including many which are far more commonly/easily encountered than the inland taipan, and which are far less timid than it.

if you get the chance to visit the Australian outback, your view will certainly change, especially once you meet genera such as Sclerolaena, Hakea or Tribulus. A significant portion of Australian outback plants are armed with spines, thorns, pungent mucros, and hairs. When I do fieldwork in the outback, spinifex grass (which just to clarify is the genus Triodia; the genus Spinifex is a completely different genus of coastal shoreline grasses which are not spiny) isn’t even in the top 10 things that I would be thinking of re damage/injury.

  1. Prolific media hype and overexaggeration over the years.

  2. As I said above, the most serious danger faced in the outback is not any of the flora/fauna, but the fact you have tremendously large areas that consistently experience temperatures exceeding 45°C, including over 50°C, for extended periods and extreme UV conditions. Many of these areas have no water and there are also numerous vast areas where you have to travel hundreds of kilometres on unsealed roads with zero infrastructure or access to food or water or fuel (other than what you have brought yourself)

  3. The Sonoran Desert is ~250,000 sq km; the Australian ‘outback’ is over 5 million sq km.

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Fair enough, other elapids didn’t cross my mind when typing this out, that is my fault.

Well, fair enough then. Spinifex not being Spinifex did throw me off. Does the Sonora have any dangerous plants of this nature besides cactus?

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The number one most dangerous thing about Australian deserts is the heat, distance and low population. Many more people get into danger and distress due to the heat than anything else. The number of heat stroke deaths in the Sonoran Desert would be higher than Central Australia but that’s because there’s like 6 million people there compared to maybe half a million in the Australian Central Desert regions. However the Sonoran Desert is around 300,000 sqkm whereas the central desert region of Australia is more 5 million sqkm. Your chance of being found and or finding your way out of trouble in Australia is far lower, the deserts in summer are vast, dry, incredibly hot and virtually empty of people or towns. It is a very dangerous place but yeah the wildlife is pretty tame.

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Obviously the abiotic conditions are absolutely brutal. But the perception tends to be colored by wildlife

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I will vouch for your Hakea ! We had an invasive volunteer in our first garden. In Cape Town.

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Not that they’re dangerous (except to your ability to sleep, maybe), but I remember visiting my Mom in Florida and seeing a Smokybrown Cockroach a.k.a. Palmetto Bug up close and personal for the first time.

The evening blog update included a request for someone to express mail me one of the hammers from my workbench, preferrably the wooden barrel-head mallet.

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I’ve long argued that the deadliness of Australian wildlife is severely overrated…unless you’re in the sea. I’m scared to go in the ocean north of the Tropic of Capricorn and I grew up there.

On land the North American continent is way scarier to my mind.

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I was at the Outback today. Warren Gorge, Yarrah look it up.

The Outback has deserts, but also lakes, rivers, forest and scrubland.
It is all lush green at the moment after the rains.
Do Americans have anything to fear? Not really, but there are things to keep in mind:
Drive on the left.
There are wildlife on the road, both dead and alive.
Carry a lot of water.
Keep a tab on fuel.
Don’t get lost.

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Interesting question, and having never been to either I don’t have an answer, but I do think it might be worth throwing in an extra consideration. Is the danger/scariness level of a place not so much about the attack capabilities of the flora and fauna, but how kind the environmental conditions might be? If I were to get lost on one of these places:

  • Could I find shelter from the elements?
  • Could I find potable water?
  • Could I find stuff to eat?
  • What sort of temperature ranges might I have to deal with?
  • Could I find materials to insulate me?
  • Could find something I could use a a weapon should I get attacked by scary beasts?
  • What’s the ground surface like? Could I walk easily without tripping, falling or wading through shifting sands?
  • How easily might I find a road or a trail that would take me to safety?
  • What sort of distance would I have to travel to get out, and what are the consequences of getting it wrong and going in the wrong directiont?
  • Are there any/many areas that would be impassable, how extensive are they?
  • Are anti-venoms available should I get bitten?
  • If search parties were sent to look for me, how much area would they have to cover and what are their chances of success?
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First rule, if lost - don’t leave your car ?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/12/carolina-wilga-missing-german-backpacker-found-after-11-nights-dense-australian-outback

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Even the ocean is overrated, of for no other reason that its not really Australian. Its broad indo pacific animals and in some cases flat out cosmopolitan stuff like great whites. And the indo pacific stuff is only on the northern coast. You could just as accurately call these animals “Indonesian”

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As an American myself I do not associate the outback with dangerous animals so much as dangerous remoteness

The distance to fuel, water, and other people is very large, in an environment with extreme dry heat and no shade

I’ve always thought of this as dangerous in a “you die of dehydration if your car breaks down” kind of way, not dangerous due to animals and plants.

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I’ve run into rattlesnakes in the Sonoran Desert, including the “much-feared”Mojave, as well as a coral snake, but never felt I was in danger. I would not hesitate to grab any snake there that wasn’t a rattlesnake and the coral snake is easily IDed. But I don’t know Australian snakes on sight – many look a lot like our non-venomous colubrids – and would certainly not be quick to grab at a snake there if I encountered one. But that’s just lack of familiarity.

I do agree that weather, from extreme heat to flash floods, and rough terrain will likely kill you quicker than wildlife.

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Good advice, but I can manage to lose my car in a supermarket car park!

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