Bad weather saves life after family's dangerous find near chook shed
Had the sun been shining, a trapped red-bellied black snake would have been cooked alive.
As Aussies prepared for the weekend, the sun wasn’t shining across one of our most liveable cities. And while the grey clouds that filled the sky on Friday morning were bad news for most, they saved the life of one lucky creature.
Had it been any hotter, the large native snake that crawled into a garden on Sydney’s North Shore likely would have baked in the sun. That was the assessment of the reptile expert who raced to the scene after he was told a red-belly had become entangled in metres of loose netting.
“The homeowner called me very distressed. To her credit, she was really concerned about the welfare of the red-belly and wanted to make sure he didn’t die,” Chris Williams from Urban Reptile Removal told Yahoo News.
“Luckily they got to him quite early in the morning. If it had been a warm day, or if he'd been stuck in the sun for a few hours, then that would have killed him faster than the netting would have.”
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What was the snake doing when it became tangled?
The yard where the snake was found backs onto bushland in Wahroonga, a suburb teeming with wildlife including turtles, lizards, and possums. But local mum Christina Barnacoat had never seen anything potentially dangerous in her yard until that cloudy Friday morning.
She'd thought nothing of asking her middle son to let the chickens out before school. "But then Jordan came back saying: There's a big snake," she told Yahoo.
"I thought: Uh-oh it's free range and going into the chicken coop. But when I got down there I found the poor thing caught up in the fruit tree netting."
Snake unable to open mouth due to entanglement
While there are no records of fatalities from red-belly bites, the species can be dangerous to those without expertise in snake handling, and bite victims can experience debilitating symptoms for years, including changes to taste and smell.
When Williams arrived to help and untangle the trapped animal, he wasn't afraid of being bitten because the snake was so badly tangled.
“He wasn’t even able to open its mouth because it was so caught up in netting,” Williams said.
“He was a big male, and this time of year they’re out looking for a feed and for a mate. So he was just out there looking for love.”
Problem netting banned in two Aussie regions
While it’s the first time the homeowner had accidentally caught a snake in her 10 years of living at the property, netting with large holes is known to frequently entangle wildlife across the state, particularly reptiles, birds and flying foxes.
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Barnacoat had no idea netting could be so dangerous for wildlife, and she's vowed to replace it with a kinder alternative.
"Seeing this beautiful, big red-belly made me think the netting is cruel. Knowing that could happen, I'll never touch it again," she said.
Because many unsuspecting gardeners aren’t aware of the problems it causes across NSW more generally, Williams would like to see legislators act and ban it. Entanglement is less of a problem in Victoria and the ACT where it’s illegal to use nets with a gauge greater than 5mm x 5mm.
It’s also recommended loose netting isn’t left on the ground and is instead tied tightly around the base of the tree.
“Every one of the snake catchers and wildlife organisations gets multiple call outs each year. Across the state it would be affecting hundreds of animals,” Williams said.
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