Snake catcher's 'mind blowing' find in cafe bathroom amid warning over spate of hospitalisations
Is nowhere safe in Australia, not even the toilet? That's what a chef at a Sydney cafe was left asking on the weekend after his well-earned break was interrupted by an unnerving intruder.
Curled up behind the toilet was a find so odd that even one of the city's most prolific snake catchers was left surprised. Chris Williams from Urban Reptile Removal is used to seeing diamond pythons, tree snakes and even the occasional red-belly around Lindfield, but adult eastern brown snakes are much rarer in the leafy upper North Shore suburb.
'It was mind-blowing. For it to have ended up in Linfield was surprising. For it to end that up in a cafe, was even more surprising. But then finding it in the toilet took the cake,' he told Yahoo News.
Right down to the moment Williams opened the door, he had been expecting something other than an eastern brown. But there was no mistaking the unique movements of this highly venomous and defensive species, which you can see in the video below.
"When I opened the door it sat up and assumed that characteristic eastern brown snake stance. It was twisting its body into an S-shape and opening its mouth, looking very distressed,' he said.
Related: Bizarre snake mystery on top of mum's car
Although the snake was puffing out its neck like a cobra to make itself seem larger, the tiles it was resting on were cold and this slowed down its movement.
'Despite its best efforts, it was reasonably subdued. And it looked like it had just eaten a pretty big meal.'
The snake was released a short distance away at an undisclosed location. "It was well away from houses and people. It was an adult snake, and missing part of its tail, and if it's taken 10 years to cross paths with people, I think it has a good chance of survival," he said.
Eastern brown snakes can be hard for your average Joe to identify because they come in almost every shade of brown. Babies can be an even bigger challenge because they're striped and have cute little eyes – two weeks ago a father of four almost picked one up thinking it was a python.
The species is one of the most feared in Australia. It has an unfair reputation for being aggressive because it can be highly defensive when it feels threatened. And after the inland taipan, it's the second-most venomous land snake in the country.
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Finding a snake in your toilet is relatively rare in Australia. But last year Yahoo revealed extreme weather resulted in a slight increase in this occurring.
In Queensland, there was a surge in snake attack cases over the weekend with seven people admitted to hospital. But deaths from bites in Australia are rare and this is helped in part by good access to antivenin — only one or two people die here each year compared to 50,000 to 60,000 in India.
When bites do occur here, it's nearly always men who fall victim. According to Melbourne University research, around a fifth of them had tried to pick the snake up.
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