Loud thumps in family's roof lead to 'craziest' discovery

Occasional noise coming from the roof isn't uncommon in Australia if you happen to share a suburb with any of our native marsupials, but one Queenslander was given the shock of a lifetime last night after attempting to track down the source of heavy "thumping" sounds in their ceiling.

It's not every day you discover two giant male carpet pythons brawling in the space above where you eat dinner every night, but that became the reality for this astonished Aussie.

Stuart from Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers revealed on social media his team were called out to a job yesterday after residents of a home reported hearing "incredibly" loud, strange noises in their ceiling. What transpired after they arrived was "one of the craziest snake catches" the crew had ever seen.

"We sent Tiarnah over to a job last night to a bloke who had been hearing noises in his roof, banging and crashing," the seasoned snake catcher said.

"Now, the roof space which the snakes were in, Tiarnah couldn't access, so they ended up having to pull out a light fitting and they put their phone up to find two big male carpet pythons fighting.

"So they had to come up with a plan, and what the plan was — with the owner's permission — to cut a small hole in the roof to access the snakes."

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What happened next Stuart says "was just unbelievable", calling it among the "craziest" catches he can remember.

How the pythons were captured

In the footage, a dark, dusty roof space can be seen through the lens of a phone camera and torch. At first glance, it appears there's only one snake, but a second quickly appears from behind and it's soon revealed the pair are entwined in one another, wrapped an in aggressive brawl.

Wriggling and thrashing about, the two reptiles seem only slightly bothered by the camera's flash, enthralled in their fight for dominance.

"Tiarnah was able to grab both snakes at the same time and drag them slowly and gently using a head grab out of the hole and into the bag," Stuart said.

Footage then shows the snake catcher doing just that.

It's the stuff of nightmares for most people, but just another day on the job for the snake catching crew.

Tiarnah can be seen in the footage gradually pulling the two huge animals from the roof, safely into a bag.

While, it may seem frightening, it's actually fairly common for male carpet pythons to fight, even in our roofs, Stuart confirmed to Yahoo News Australia.

Snakes emerging from winter early

The discovery comes just a day after the team issued a warning to Aussies, reminding people that our reptiles are emerging from winter early this year.

In Australia, the climate is not cold enough for snakes to hibernate, but they do go into a similar dormant state called brumation, which can last from one to eight months depending on the size, health and age of the reptile.

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