A woman in her 60s is recovering after being bitten by a two-metre-long eastern brown snake that had become entangled in her bike chain in regional Australia.<\/p>\n
She was riding on the northern rivers rail trail near Burringbar, in the Tweed shire in northern New South Wales<\/a>, when she ran over the snake.<\/p>\n Paramedics were called to the incident at about 1pm on Wednesday to help the woman, who had been bitten on the thigh, a NSW ambulance spokesperson said. She was taken to Tweed Valley hospital in a stable condition. According to the Northern NSW local health district, she was discharged on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n Eastern brown snakes are highly venomous<\/a> and have been dubbed the world\u2019s second most venomous snake<\/a>. They are generally a medium-sized species found across eastern Australia in a wide stretch from northern Queensland to South Australia. Although brown snakes are the most common cause<\/a> of fatal snake bites in the country, deaths by bites from any species of snake are rare.<\/p>\n The snake catcher Sarah Mailey, who was called to the scene, said freeing the snake from the bike chain was highly challenging because its upper body remained completely free.<\/p>\n \u201cIts head wasn\u2019t in the chain so it was free to be able to strike her leg,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The eastern brown snake\u2019s lower body tangled in the bike chain. Photograph: Sarah Mailey<\/p>\n Mailey said the rider had sustained a \u201cdry bite\u201d, meaning the venom did not enter the woman\u2019s bloodstream.<\/p>\n Mailey was eventually able to pin the snake\u2019s head while bystanders assisted in disentangling the chain. Police also attended the scene at the request of paramedics to ensure public safety in the area.<\/p>\n The snake was euthanised due to injuries sustained in the ordeal, Mailey said.<\/p>\n Unique circumstances<\/p>\n Mailey, who has been called out to remove a number of snakes along the rail trail, said the reptiles were often attracted to the underside of the concrete path for the \u201clittle burrows and rodents that dig underneath it\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIn April, snakes start to look for where they\u2019re going to spend their time and they move under there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that he was probably just sitting there not moving, it wouldn\u2019t have been something that she [the bike rider] would have spotted.\u201d<\/p>\n The snake was also blind in its left eye, which likely contributed to the situation, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe [the bike rider] probably just thought it was a stick or a shadow and given that the snake\u2019s blind in that eye, it\u2019s obviously not seen the shadow coming towards it and given it enough time to move.\u201d<\/p>\n The cooler weather also played a role in slowing the snake\u2019s reflexes.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it was any other time of year and the snake wasn\u2019t blind, it would have had energy and seen her coming and got out of the way.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s just a mixture of the time of the year, it being a blind snake, and it\u2019s just part of life, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019ve had this happen a couple of times,\u2019 a snake catcher friend told Sarah Mailey<\/p>\n While an incredibly rare mishap, Mailey discovered it was not entirely unprecedented.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it did happen, I actually rang one of my close friends that\u2019s a snake catcher. He\u2019s been doing it for 31 years and I explained what had happened to him and he said, \u2018I\u2019ve had this happen a couple of times.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Eastern brown snakes often misidentified<\/p>\n