Snake catcher narrowly avoids bite from huge goanna

A snake catcher on the Sunshine Coast has had a close call with a lace monitor, narrowly missing its razor-sharp bite while relocating the huge lizard.

Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 owner Richie Gilbert attended a property in Ilkley after reports of a goanna snacking on four of the owner’s chickens and dozens of eggs.

When he entered the backyard, Richie spotted the lizard near the border of the garden and quickly picked it up around the neck and the tail.

As he went to put it in a storage container, the experienced handler noticed the large reptile didn’t feel like cooperating.

Instead of going into the bucket, the monitor wrapped its front and back legs around Richie’s forearm, digging its claws into his shirt.

“Just relax, bud,” Richie can be heard saying.

After several more attempts to get the lizard into the container, the frustrated animal suddenly strikes, latching onto Richie’s shoe just centimetres away from his ankle.

It was a close call for the snake handler, who has been catching Monitors since he was a child.

According to the Facebook page Richie has never been bitten, but ‘his perfect record nearly came to an end’ during the relocation of the goanna on Wednesday.

At the end of the video the cameraman jumps into help put the lid on the container.

“He’s just a bit too big for the bucket,” Richie said.

The group said they don’t like relocating the lizards but would rather take care of them than an unhappy property owner.

“We recommend that you build your animal enclosures to be reptile proof so as to avoid losing your pets but also so we don't have to perform a relocation that could otherwise be avoided,” Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers wrote.

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