While tidying around her child’s box of garden water toys, a mother in Morayfield, Queensland, Australia, discovered a 3-foot-long python curled up among the brightly colored plastic play station.
Startled, she called in local snake catcher, Steve Brown, of Brisbane North Snake Catchers and Relocation, to remove the enormous reptile.
“As she wasn’t keen on snakes, she went back inside and stayed there until I arrived,” Brown told Newsweek.
The python was in the same place when Brown arrived on the scene, folded up next to a blue sandcastle mold. With his bare hands, he carefully lifted up the snake, which gently began to wrap itself around his arm. “[It] was not phased about being moved,” Brown said.
Coastal carpet pythons are a subspecies of carpet python that are found mostly along the east coast of Australia. The species can grow up to 13 feet in length, although most do not exceed 8 feet, according to the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
The species is non-venomous and instead kills their prey by constriction. They hunt by ambush and use heat-sensitive organs on their lower jaw to track down the body heat of other animals. “Carpet pythons are incredibly strong,” snake catcher Drew Godfrey, of the Hervey Bay Snake Catchers, previously told Newsweek. “They ambush their prey and bite them before coiling around the animal’s body and suffocating it.”
However, these snakes are not aggressive and will only lash out at people if they feel harassed or threatened.
The subspecies is very common in eastern Australia and is one of the most frequent snakes to be found in people’s homes. Previously, Brown has rescued them from a child’s bedroom, where it had wrapped itself around the sleeping child’s arm, and from the toilet bowl of a netball club restroom.
Brown shared photos from this recent incident to his Facebook page, Brisbane North Snake Catchers and Relocation 24hrs 7days 0449922341.
“That would have been a bit of a surprise!” said one user.
“Good to see they called you,” said another.
“This one is very pretty,” one user wrote, as another said: “Nice markings.”
Although the species is non-venomous, bites from these snakes can still cause a lot of damage. Therefore, if you find one on your property, it is best to call in an expert to have it removed.
“If you see a snake, call a professional to relocate it rather than putting yourself at risk,” Brown said.