Difficulty: Challenger (Level 2)
A team of Australian reptile catchers says it has topped the beloved children’s tale The Hundred and One Dalmatians, stumbling across 102 venomous snakes in a suburban backyard.
Last month, Cory Kerewaro and his team were called to catch a pair of red-bellied black snakes spotted in a pile of gardening mulch in Sydney.
They expected to wrangle “four or five” adults at most, Kerewaro said, but stopped counting after pulling out a “whole bunch” of baby snakes.
They initially bagged about 40 of the slithering predators to take away. But the snakes kept coming.
“Two of the females had given birth in the bag,” Kerewaro said. “We counted them ... one by one. We had 102 in total.”
Red-bellied black snakes are less venomous than other Australian species, but their bite is still toxic enough to cause severe pain, nausea and vomiting. Venomous snakes use their fangs to inject toxins into their victims (see graphic).
“They are a shy snake and will generally only deliver a serious bite [when they feel threatened],” according to the Australian Museum.
Most would consider themselves extremely unfortunate to come across even one of the cold-blooded wrigglers.
But not Kerewaro, who said the find was unheard of in snake-catching circles.
“No one has been there at the right time and won the snake lottery. It was just the right time, right place for us.”
Questions
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Why should you avoid trying to catch a snake on your own?
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What can happen if a red-bellied black snake bites a person?
