{"id":274027,"date":"2026-01-31T16:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/274027\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T16:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:58:09","slug":"venomous-creature-thats-caused-10-extinctions-discovered-behind-aussie-kids-bed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/274027\/","title":{"rendered":"Venomous creature that\u2019s caused 10 extinctions discovered behind Aussie kid\u2019s bed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Living next to a large angophora tree, a family of five was used to hearing strange noises in their home on Sydney\u2019s Northern Beaches.<\/a> Possums once crawled across its thick branches and temporarily made their home in the roof, and one even fell through a skylight.<\/p>\n

Phoebe Ghorayeb had been reading to her kids, Valentina, Siddy, and Zaki, in an upstairs room when they heard an \u201calmighty thump\u201d. Her husband ran down to investigate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband came downstairs to check it out. And there was nothing suspicious down there, so we just ignored it,\u201d she told Yahoo News.<\/p>\n

What she\u2019d heard was a venomous Australian snake<\/a> that had caused devastation wherever it’s been introduced. In Guam alone, it has caused the extinction of 10 species.<\/p>\n

Reptile handler Chris Williams noted it\u2019s known as the island where no birds sing, because they\u2019ve all been eaten.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just went completely scorched earth on the place,\u201d the Urban Reptile Removal <\/a>founder told Yahoo News.<\/p>\n

Strange substance discovered in kids’ room<\/p>\n

Two days after hearing the thump, Phoebe found something completely unexpected when she went into her girls\u2019 room to make their beds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI noticed a small poo on the floor. I thought that\u2019s definitely not one of ours,\u201d she quipped.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd next to the poo was some yellow crusty substance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Chris Williams came to investigate after strange noises were heard in an Allambie Heights home. Source: Urban Reptile Removal<\/p>\n

It was unlike the possum or mouse poo she\u2019d seen in her yard before. Besides, they would have fled the house had they known of the predator inside.<\/p>\n

Whatever creature was leaving it behind had been moving around the house, but as she continued to clean, she also found evidence of the yellow substance upstairs.<\/p>\n

Around a week later, her daughters had a friend over for a playdate, and they decided to rearrange the room.<\/p>\n

Her bed had been pulled away from the wall, and Phoebe decided to use it as an opportunity to clean away the pencils and books that had been lost behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reached down to pick something up and saw what I thought was a toy, but when I moved a light which was on top of it, it moved,\u201d Phoebe said.<\/p>\n

\"Left:<\/p>\n

When the snake moved, Phoebe immediately knew it wasn\u2019t a toy. And she called Chris Williams for help. Source: Urban Reptile Removal<\/p>\n

Kids excited by creature they’d shared their room with<\/p>\n

When Phoebe moved from the United Kingdom to Australia 15 years ago, she thought she would see more kangaroos. But instead, it\u2019s more common to see reptiles, and in this case, it was a 180cm-long snake.<\/p>\n

After hurrying her kids downstairs, she called a professional reptile handler for help. He identified the animal as a brown tree snake, which is known to be mildly venomous.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived, they took me upstairs, and behind the Mickey Mouse bed, was the snake having a snooze,\u201d Chris told Yahoo News.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were pretty excited about who they\u2019d been sharing their bedroom with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strange yellow casings that Phoebe had found were simply the remnants of the brown tree snake\u2019s meals, likely urates or waste.<\/p>\n

While the species has caused devastation overseas, it\u2019s a natural part of the Australian bush and a sign of a thriving ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Only larger snakes are strong enough to inject venom into humans, and they are not considered particularly dangerous.<\/p>\n

Love Australia’s weird and wonderful environment? \ud83d\udc0a\ud83e\udd98\ud83d\ude33 Get our new newsletter<\/a> showcasing the week\u2019s best stories.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Living next to a large angophora tree, a family of five was used to hearing strange noises in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[133590,61,60,102257,82,133592,133591,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-274027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-chris-williams","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-mickey-mouse","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-strange-noises","14":"tag-urban-reptile-removal","15":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}