Watch snake catcher wrangle one of world’s most venomous snakes from roof in Australia
As a seasoned snake catcher, Dan Marshall is no stranger to Australia’s abundant snake population.
But a recent call from a client was new for him: an eastern brown snake on a roof.
“Catch the second most venomous land snake on earth, on a roof….check,” Marshall said in a Jan. 17 Facebook post. “Definitely a first for me, no idea how this unit of an eastern brown got up there.”
A video shows Marshall atop the roof, wrangling the active reptile as it squirms and tries to escape his grasp. He then places the animal in a black bag.
Marshall said it was unclear how the snake ended up on the roof, but his customer told him “the rodent noise in his roof space had gone awfully quiet in the last week.”
The creature was captured in Cockatoo Valley, which is in southern South Australia.
Eastern brown snakes, also known as common brown snakes, are “widely seen as dangerous pests,” according to experts at the Australian Museum. The brown snakes are “medium sized,” and they like to live in “open landscapes” like woodlands and grasslands.
The reptiles are regularly found in regions densely populated by humans, and as “an alert, nervous species, they often react defensively ... putting on a fierce display and striking with little hesitation,” experts said.
Though they have small fangs and a small bite, the snake’s venom is incredibly potent and can cause “progressive paralysis and uncontrollable bleeding.”
This story was originally published January 19, 2024 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Watch snake catcher wrangle one of world’s most venomous snakes from roof in Australia."
