Snake sightings, encounters and reminders.

[Grey Panner]

Another time a friend found his dog barking at the kids toy box on the verandah - and out slid a cobra.

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Way back in the fifties, when the only good snake was a dead one, it was late one night when the publican's daughter shouted, "Everybody come and look. The cats are killing a snake!"
There were two cats. One was a grizzled old tabby and the other was a pure white Persian , bigger than a kitten but not yet fully grown.
They had bailed up a large Eastern Brown on the concrete path just outside the kitchen door.
The snake was drawn back in striking position. The cagey old tabby was crouching to one side and the young cat was dancing provocatively in front of the snake.'Suddenly the snake struck at the young cat which floated up into the air leaving the snake fully stretched out beneath it. The old tabby lunged forward and bit the snake just behind the head then withdrew. The snake recoiled and the young cat landed and began to dance again.
This was repeated three times so it was obvious that the cats, working in unison, were fully aware of how to fight a snake.
At this point, quite a crowd had developed,shouting and moving about and the frantic snake made a dash for the wood box beside the kitchen door. Everyone agreed that it would be lethal to leave a wounded and angry snake in the wood box where some unsuspecting person might encounter it so one by one the billets of wood were gingerly removed, At last a piecce of the snake could be seen, Someone placed the muzzle of a .22 against the target and pulled the trigger. The snake shot out of the wood box and disappeared into the long grass. No one was drunk enough to follow it.
The next day crows led us to the remains of the snake which, if not harrassed by the cats would probably have just continued hunting the mice and frogs that proliferated in that precinct.
Still, the chances of a drunk using that path which led to the toilets stepping on the snake and getting bitten were enough to convince everyone that the cats were an asset.

 

[user 4386]

If you ever drive the Canning stock route, take care at the wells (that you need for your water). It is where the frogs live - and therefore where the snakes live. Take care lifting the lids.....

 

[uttu kaos]

Great photos and a great reminder to people, if you're not experienced at catching snakes call an expert who is. I got bit by a brown snake when I was a kid, handling it and a legless lizard at the same time, serves myself right. Lesson learnt.

sound advice mate, im a catcher and theres been many a time ive gone to catch a snake and the people that want it removed tell me they tried and couldnt do it..not only is it stupid its also illegal to even touch it..i always ask them how much is your life worth nothing for them to do it, or $40 for me to do it..i usually end up telling them that you are a long time dead as well..

 

[uttu kaos]

David 100% I won't use the word chase but on at least several occasions have been sitting in a very open area and they have certainly made a bee line for me when they had no need to come anywhere near me? Inland Taipan was last encounter when sitting on the ground leaning back and I froze as he came from behind sliding between my arm on the ground and bum. Now when I say froze I'm not saying like the cool young lady in vid above, I froze simply because I shit myself . I don't sit on the ground anymore

youre right i wouldnt use chase either as snakes can only see about half a meter in front of them at best, to me the chase part is the snake going in their direction, when catching ive had snakes come at me for a meter or 2 and thats it and after 18 years of snake catching and hundreds of snakes caught ive never had one chase me as such.. i will say that if one ever did it would def be the Taipan cos hes a bugger to catch.. extremely calculating, extremely fast and the only snake that im slightly scared to tangle with..

 

[Greg_wilson]

sound advice mate, im a catcher and theres been many a time ive gone to catch a snake and the people that want it removed tell me they tried and couldnt do it..not only is it stupid its also illegal to even touch it..i always ask them how much is your life worth nothing for them to do it, or $40 for me to do it..i usually end up telling them that you are a long time dead as well..

Illegal to touch it? I know it’s illegal to kill one with the exception of if it genuinely poses a threat

 

[uttu kaos]

Illegal to touch it? I know it’s illegal to kill one with the exception of if it genuinely poses a threat

yeah its illegal to touch, remove or kill any native including snakes..and no theres no exceptions cos you just remove yourself from the area..im supposidly not allowed to move a snake if its not causing a problem like its in your front yard..i will move it but im not supposed to..this is QLD but im sure its the same everywhere else,,

 

[user 22230]

Uttu Kaos .................. good info and also confirms what I had been told by others. It's more if you are between the snake and where it wishes to go and hence I think is what occurred in my taipan situation. Once composed and I surveyed where I had been sitting there was a large pile of natural form rocks behind me and reckon he may have just been going out to get the newspaper and I was sitting on his foot path

 

[uttu kaos]

Another time a friend found his dog barking at the kids toy box on the verandah - and out slid a cobra.

View attachment 7818

Very cool, ive always wanted to work with a cobra especially a king...

 

[uttu kaos]

Uttu Kaos .................. good info and also confirms what I had been told by others. It's more if you are between the snake and where it wishes to go and hence I think is what occurred in my taipan situation. Once composed and I surveyed where I had been sitting there was a large pile of natural form rocks behind me and reckon he may have just been going out to get the newspaper and I was sitting on his foot path

you hit the nail on the head there, Taipans dont like being in the open, they prefer to go from cover to cover..

 

[Greg_wilson]

yeah its illegal to touch, remove or kill any native including snakes..and no theres no exceptions cos you just remove yourself from the area..im supposidly not allowed to move a snake if its not causing a problem like its in your front yard..i will move it but im not supposed to..this is QLD but im sure its the same everywhere else,,

Sorry I don’t believe that is correct, not trying to be argumentative at all but from my reading of the various acts I find no reference to not being able to touch one but plenty of references to being able to kill one if life is threatened.

eg: “Snakes are protected by law in all states and territories of Australia and may not be killed unless they threaten life. Offences under the Nature Conservation Act 2014 carry severe penalties. Snakes cannot be taken from the wild, kept without a licence, or traded without a licence.”

The reason I question it is because I had a decent sized brown snake in my van where I am living near Menzies. Getting a snake handler to come out to my lease would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming if I could get one to come at all.
l’m not stupid and my assessment was that I could not safely remove it, it posed a genuine threat to me and my guest so I safely removed its head.

 

[uttu kaos]

Sorry I don’t believe that is correct, not trying to be argumentative at all but from my reading of the various acts I find no reference to not being able to touch one but plenty of references to being able to kill one if life is threatened.

eg: “Snakes are protected by law in all states and territories of Australia and may not be killed unless they threaten life. Offences under the Nature Conservation Act 2014 carry severe penalties. Snakes cannot be taken from the wild, kept without a licence, or traded without a licence.”

The reason I question it is because I had a decent sized brown snake in my van where I am living near Menzies. Getting a snake handler to come out to my lease would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming if I could get one to come at all.
l’m not stupid and my assessment was that I could not safely remove it, it posed a genuine threat to me and my guest so I safely removed its head.

its def correct, its the same with any native animal in Australia.. All reptiles are protected species under the native animals act and killing one would only be an extreme last resort..im not talking about 1 in your house either, i mean if your life depended on it.. .., there are a heap of ways of moving a snake from an area without resorting to killing it plus they have an important job and they do it well..

 

[Greg_wilson]

Touching a native animal is not illegal, if so removing a blue tongue or turtle off the road would be illegal. All those hand feeding lorikeets, kookaburras and magpies would be committing an offence.

Genuinely keen to see any legislation where it states it’s illegal to touch a native if you don’t mind or we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

Also there was no way I could safely remove the snake without injuring it, damaging my van or endangering myself, 3 things I was not prepared to do. The safest thing to do was to dispatch it.

 

[uttu kaos]

Touching a native animal is not illegal, if so removing a blue tongue or turtle off the road would be illegal. All those hand feeding lorikeets, kookaburras and magpies would be committing an offence.

Genuinely keen to see any legislation where it states it’s illegal to touch a native if you don’t mind or we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

Also there was no way I could safely remove the snake without injuring it, damaging my van or endangering myself, 3 things I was not prepared to do. The safest thing to do was to dispatch it.

no problems here, def agree to disagree,, sounds as though you had to do what you had to do..ive pulled apart 2 ovens and torn apart 1 wall so far to get snakes out and luckily only dispatched 3 because of injuries..ive repaired a heap especially with supa glue, it works a treat..

 

[user 4386]

its def correct, its the same with any native animal in Australia.. All reptiles are protected species under the native animals act and killing one would only be an extreme last resort..im not talking about 1 in your house either, i mean if your life depended on it.. .., there are a heap of ways of moving a snake from an area without resorting to killing it plus they have an important job and they do it well..

"But according to senior Parks and Wildlife ranger Alice Donne, exemptions exist when a snake absolutely poses imminent danger to a person or their pet. "So it's got to be, say, in the kitchen and there's no other option [but to kill it]," she said. "It's one of those things where we're not putting wildlife above human safety."

However, the Act also states that exemptions can be applied for when the snake is within 100 metres of an occupied property. This means that killing snakes is in fact legal on most urban properties but may be illegal in the outer areas of some rural properties".

It varies by State and Territory - this relates to the Northern Territory.

And if it was in your kitchen, I certainly won't dob you in.

 

[EVIE/BEE]

My dad said once that if a snake is injured and gets fly blown it would die. He was on old bushie.

 

[Grey Panner]

My dad said once that if a snake is injured and gets fly blown it would die. He was on old bushie.

On the same note, I was told that if a snake had an open wound, the ants would give it no rest and hassle it to death.

 

[uttu kaos]

My dad said once that if a snake is injured and gets fly blown it would die. He was on old bushie.

hes right, they do get flyblown, ive patched a few snakes with holes in the skin with super glue and it works great, ive also pulled a few ribs thet were sticking out of the belly of a python after it was run over..it was afresh wound so i pulled the broken ribs away, then washed it with iodine then a bit of super glue to close up and it was released about a week later with no problems at all..im not supposed to keep any snake longer than 12 hours but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do..working on injured venomous is fun, you poke the head up into a pvc tube and hold it there and then work on the injury..fun but bloody dangerous..

 

[user 4386]

"hes right, they do get flyblown" - yep, as do cows and sheep untreated and us - except we have antiseptics, betadine and bandages so we are hopefully low on rotting flesh.

Interesting what you do with superglue though - great!

 

[user 12139]

haven't seen many snakes this year, thats a bit odd for around here. We get tigers, browns and blacks here
Also haven't heard many single shots like I normally do this time of year from neighbouring properties

Anyone else experiencing the same?

 

[Moneybox]

We used to breed, slaughter and sell turkeys. We had about 2000 turkeys that were loose during the day and housed in a pen of chicken wire at night. The fences were about 8' high and the top was spanned by Queensland box saplings and chicken wire fastened together every few feet.

One morning we were woken by a large percentage of the 2000 turkeys flying overhead from the top of our hill across the valley to the top of the next hill and back again. They shouldn't have been out so upon inspection we found a big fat 10' carpet snake in their pen and the wire mesh had been parted between ties where the turkeys had taken flight and forced their way through the mesh.

Linesman (on this site) might remember the event because it was his hill they were crossing to.

I must have been about 13 at the time because my older brother was involved when we bagged up the snake and carted it off to Indooroopilly High on the council bus opening the bag for anybody who wanted a look. We got off the bus on Moggill Road and walked to school via Station Road and doing so had to pass under the Indooroopilly railway station.

It was a pretty busy time of the morning so we upended the cornsack in the pedestrian subway under the station. It caused quite a stir as you can imagine. We had a ball but I reckon some caught an earlier train and some headed the other way and probably missed theirs.

The reason for taking it along to school was for the zoology lesson one of our friends was attending. The lady teacher let the snake out, placed a 3' ruler on its neck and picked it up enough to anesthetize it. Then during the class she opened it up removing the three turkeys from inside and showed the class the beating heart and other organs before it was put to sleep permanently. We were invited in for the afternoon to sample her cooking. The meat was so tough that it got bigger the more you chewed it. It couldn't be eaten.

We never intended to have the snake die because we always tolerated carpet snakes being about. They rarely caused a problem and kept the rats and mice under control. Sometimes we'd get the feather tailed rats that would take the chooks in their sleep and they would kill more chooks than the snakes ever did.