A venomous snake is lurking in this photo from Australia. Can you find it?
Sometimes snakes end up in places that humans find absolutely unacceptable — and unmistakable — like the ice dispenser on a fridge or around the Christmas tree. Other times these scaly reptiles are so well-hidden they almost seem to vanish.
Gardeners in Australia recently encountered one such camouflaged snake. Can you find it?
Several gardeners were cleaning up a vacant lot in Ararat and picked up a piece of corrugated metal, Gianni Hodgson, a local snake catcher, told McClatchy News over email on Jan. 23. Underneath the metal, they found a venomous tiger snake.
A photo shows the tiger snake lurking in the lot’s long grass. The photo was shared on Facebook on Jan. 18 by Hodgson’s company, Hodgsons Snakes Rescue and Removal, for a “game of spot the snake.”
Hodgsons Snakes Rescue and Removal came to the lot to remove the tiger snake, Hodgson said. A photo shows where the snake was hiding.
Tiger snakes have a “fearsome reputation” in Australia, according to an article from the Australian Museum. These large snakes have an “aggressive nature and toxic venom,” making them “extremely dangerous to humans.”
But Hodgson said he does not consider tiger snakes more aggressive than other snake species. Instead, tiger snakes “tend to take their time moving off, and may turn around to just make sure whoever is following them isn’t going to interfere with them.”
Although tiger snakes vary in coloring, the species gets its name from the “prominent yellow and black cross-bands” common on some snakes, the museum said.
Ararat is in the state of Victoria and about 600 miles southwest of Sydney.
This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 4:23 PM with the headline "A venomous snake is lurking in this photo from Australia. Can you find it?."
