Aussie woman's puzzling find in swimming pool filter: 'No idea'
'Snake or worm — or something else?' the mum asked locals after the surprising discovery.
An Australian woman stumbled across a surprising discovery while cleaning her pool this week, leaving her and others more than a little puzzled.
After opening the pool’s filter, the Sydney mum was shocked to see a creature tangled and hiding among leaves and other debris.
In an attempt to identify the knotted mass, the woman posted a photo of it camouflaged in the water on a community Facebook page. “Snake or worm — or something else?” she asked other residents.
One Frenchs Forest local responded that they thought the creature looked like a snake, but had “no idea” overall. Another joked that it could be a sneaky eel.
The Sydney woman later commented that she had posted the photo on a “snake ID website” and had been told it is a blind snake. Others agreed with her, deeming it to be “completely harmless”.
“They feed on ants and termites. You can gently pick him up and release back in the garden,” one man wrote.
'All snakes have the ability to swim'
Dr Christina Zdenek, a biologist at the University of Queensland, confirmed to Yahoo News Australia the woman’s startling discovery is indeed a blind snake.
Serin Subaraj, a Herpetologist from Curtin University, agreed, telling Yahoo the snake appears to have fallen into the pool before clinging onto debris to try and stay above water.
“All snakes have the ability to swim but species like blind snakes are not the best at swimming so it would cling onto anything to stay afloat,” he said.
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Blind snakes, which are non-venomous and unable to bite, are often mistaken for earthworms and live in southeastern Australia, according to the Australian Museum.
They can be pink or grey in colour, and feature smooth scales around their bodies “that allow them to travel through soil”.
Last weekend, Melbourne snake catcher Mark Pelley made headlines after capturing fascinating footage showing how easily a venomous eastern brown can slither under a door.
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