Snake catchers who wrangled a snake from child’s lego set have seen worse
For the average Australian, catching sight of a snake wrapped around a child’s lego set would be enough to make the spine tingle.
For Queensland snake catchers Tony and Brooke Harrison, it was just another day in the office.
The husband and wife, who were called to a suburban Gold Coast home on Thursday to catch what they had been told was a carpet python in a compromising position, told Weekend TODAY the shock discovery was not a one-off.
“It happens often. A lot of people leave doors open in their house and at this time of year, it is breeding season,” Mr Harrison told co-hosts Jayne Azzopardi and Tom Steinfort this morning.
“A lot of males will travel up to 500m a day trying to find a female so it is not uncommon for them to find themselves in spots they’re not supposed to be.
“In this case, it was a lego set.”
When they arrived, Ms Harrison quickly recognised they were dealing with something much more dangerous – a 1.7m eastern brown snake, the world’s second most toxic land animal.
“When I got there and said to her (the mother) it was an eastern brown, you could see the blood drain from her face. She was in shock,” he said.
Video filmed by Ms Harrison shows Mr Harrison, who has 26 years of experience under his belt, reel in the “big boy” who was surprisingly masterful, the snake catchers said.
“Usually they’ll pull up in the ‘S’ position and get ready to strike. This guy sat back and tried to figure out where Tony was going before he did anything,” Ms Harrison said.
The couple’s young son, a catcher-in-training, slept through the catch.
Mr Harrison said a lot of snakes had been “running a muck” this season in southeast Queensland due to hot weather.
“As soon as it gets above 23 degrees, they’re out. Usually the weather creeps up a couple of degrees at a time, but this year it went from 23 to 32 degrees,” he said.
And after 16,000 “relocations”, he’s seen a lot worse.
“In people’s beds, under pillows, in toilets, under the seat of people’s cars … Let your imagination run wild and snakes have been found there,” he said.
