'Dangerously venomous' find hiding in backyard pool
A woman's trip to her backyard pool was abruptly halted after the slithery discovery.
With peak snake season upon us, there's no shortage of the animals being found in all sorts of tight, tricky spots in people's homes all around Australia.
While for the most part, the slithery creatures will try to steer clear of humans at all costs, but sometimes an interaction is unavoidable, especially as the weather heats up. There are over 140 species of land snakes, and 32 species of sea snakes, so it's often difficult to differentiate the animals from one another.
NSW resident's surprise find in backyard pool
One NSW woman took to social media on Monday to try to identify which kind of scaly serpent had been found in her friend's pool, in Grafton in the state's north.
Responding to the query, one person thought it might be a spotted black snake, also known as blue-bellied black snake — which are extremely venomous — while another hypothesised it could be an eastern small-eyed snake, that are also very dangerous.
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Dan from Sunshine Coast Snake catchers ruled out the former, saying "there's no blue-bellied in Grafton", and revealed it was possibly a venomous eastern small-eyed snake, though he said it was difficult to tell based from the image alone.
'Never approach' slithery intruder
According to the Australian government, the animals can grow up to 1.2 metres long and are regarded as "dangerously venomous" and should be avoided. If spotted, people are warned to "never approach them".
As to why the snake was hiding so close to the pool, it could be for a number of reasons. While land snakes are in fact known to cool off in water during hot weather, it's more likely it was just trying to conceal itself out of harms way in the hot summer sun.
Previously speaking to Yahoo, Cory Kerewaro from Reptile Relocation Sydney told Yahoo News Australia there are many reasons snakes enter pools.
"They might want a quick drink and depending on the type of snake, they might want to feed... pools attract frogs and things like that," he said. "Some places where people have left a pool noodle or body board, you'll find a snake sitting on top of that trying to keep dry."
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