Participants are also given a workbook on Australian snakes, their toxins and techniques for handling them \u2013 which they are cautioned to follow strictly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always a death or a very severe injury behind all these rules,\u201d Zdenek says.<\/p>\n
Some students will have never picked up a snake before \u2013 by day\u2019s end, they will be expected to have caught and bagged 10, culminating with the world\u2019s most venomous: the inland taipan.<\/p>\n
Just who on earth, one might wonder, would feel compelled to do that? More and more people, says Zdenek\u2019s husband and fellow reptile wrangler, Chris Hay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of snake catchers has exploded all over Australia,\u201d Hay says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like it\u2019s becoming a fad,\u201d Zdenek adds.<\/p>\n
Snakes are no passing interest for this pair of herpetologists. Zdenek completed a PhD on Australian snake venom and has her name on more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Hay has spent decades catching snakes and extracting venom for university labs such the Australian Venom Research Unit. When the couple holiday, they go overseas chasing bucket list serpents.<\/p>\n
Joe Hinchliffe receives close guidance from Christina Zdenek while handling an inland taipan. Photograph: David Kelly\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
And they are not the only seasoned snakers who have noticed an uptick of interest in their passion.<\/p>\n
Julia Baker is better known by the aliases Snake Boss and The Snake Sheila. When the former pastry chef ditched her day job in 2010 to become a snake catcher in Brisbane, it was still a niche enough industry for Baker to make her name with a reality show on Discovery Network\u2019s Animal Planet that screened in \u200b\u200b170 countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started, there was really only a handful of us \u2026 and we were run off our feet,\u201d she says. \u201cNow there are loads and loads and loads. Every two weeks I\u2019ll see somebody new pop up.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what is driving this trend \u2013 and what type of person wants to handle slippery creatures with lightning-fast reflexes capable of inflicting painful death with a single bite?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe snakes have not grown in numbers,\u201d Baker says, answering that first question.<\/p>\n
An eastern brown snake follows proceedings at the academy. Photograph: David Kelly\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cFifteen years ago, we didn\u2019t have nearly as many residents. We are putting more and more houses there \u2026 the snakes are searching the same areas for food \u2013 but now we\u2019ve put a house there and a resident.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baker lives in one of the fastest growing regions of Australia, south-east Queensland, where ecologically rich forest continues to be cleared for housing estates<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the story is unfolding across the country. Zdenek is working on a chapter for a book to be published by the CSIRO in which she looks at how the fear of snakes shapes Australia\u2019s suburbs.<\/p>\n In it, Zdenek tries to take the pulse of the snake removal industry. For a snapshot, the researcher compiled data from just 22 snake catchers across the country \u2013 in the spring and summer of 2024-25, they removed 9,863 snakes from private properties.<\/p>\n Chris Hay demonstrates how to check a snake\u2019s sex on a Collett\u2019s black snake. Photograph: David Kelly\/The Guardian<\/p>\n That number, Zdenek says, barely scratches the surface. In New South Wales, there are 88 registered snake catchers, and probably more in Queensland<\/a>. Zdenek has extrapolated the figures to calculate that, on a conservative count, more than 17,000 snakes are removed in Queensland alone each year.<\/p>\n Zdenek says there is no data to quantify it \u2013 but she estimates the snake-catching industry has grown tenfold over the past decade.<\/p>\n While habitat destruction and urban expansion put more snakes and people on a collision course, modern storytelling technology has fuelled the rise of the snake catcher.<\/p>\n After the release of Snake Boss in 2015, Baker says, others were inspired to follow her dramatic mid-life career change.<\/p>\n \u201cThat [show] had a really huge effect,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot of people wrote to me after that and told me: \u2018wow, I didn\u2019t know you could do this! What a fantastic job\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Regulations on snake handling vary wildly from state to state. Photograph: David Kelly\/The Guardian<\/p>\n A decade later, would-be snake bosses don\u2019t need cable TV channels for stardom. Snakes have a special hold over the human psyche \u2013 from the serpent in the Garden of Eden<\/a> to rainbow serpents of Aboriginal dreaming<\/a>, they have inspired humanity\u2019s first and most evocative stories. Snakes make for great content.<\/p>\n So it should come as no surprise that social media has given rise to figures from Melbourne\u2019s The Snake Hunter, to the Blue Mountains\u2019 The Reptile Bloke to the Sunshine Coast\u2019s That Snake Lady \u2013 all three of whom offer relocation services.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n But it is not just would-be influencers who are interested in getting their hands on scales.<\/p>\n That label might apply to one or two of 14 people at the Australian Reptile Academy in early November at best. Others have more prosaic and practical reasons for taking the course.<\/p>\n Isabelle Erbacher wants to learn what to do if she comes across a python in the chook shed on her acreage in Chuwar, near Ipswich. Krystin Reed, a school administrator, is training to deal with the next whip snake that darts across the oval. Emma Muhovic studies wildlife care with the ambition of being a zookeeper. Others include environmental scientists who might stumble upon red-bellied blacks in pitfall traps, and a retired tree changer whose cup of tea was interrupted by a brown snake.<\/p>\n Tiger snakes are found mainly around sources of water, in Australia\u2019s coastal regions. Photograph: David Kelly\/The Guardian<\/p>\n By day\u2019s end, all will graduate. Should they want to set up their own snake removal business, they are almost there. In Queensland, they will also need a first aid certificate, equipment and two referees to apply for a permit from the state government \u2013 the idea being they find a snake mentor to shadow.<\/p>\n Regulation is a state-by-state patchwork, though. In Western Australia they could already be in business. There, no licence is needed to remove a snake from a house.<\/p>\n But the Snake Boss cautions people not to quit their day job \u2013 removal work is seasonal, sporadic and not particularly lucrative, she warns.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not just gonna go out on my own and take a brown snake out of someone\u2019s bonnetHarley Gonzalez<\/p>\n \u201cPeople need to realise it\u2019s not a full-time job,\u201d she says. \u201cI did other things as well, I did puppet shows. I\u2019ve never just done snake catching, ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps counter intuitively, Zdenek and Hay hope the lessons they give will lead to fewer snake removals.<\/p>\n The pair worry about the \u201cgreat unknowns\u201d surrounding this growing industry. What happens to those snakes that are relocated? And what happens to those bits of bush that are having more and more snakes dumped into them?<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no oversight, there\u2019s no national consensus on this massive industry,\u201d Zdenek says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s in dire need of extensive, evidence-based review.\u201d<\/p>\n And the couple believe that the more people are educated about snakes, the happier they will be to live alongside them.<\/p>\n For all their fearsome reputation, many commonly encountered back yard snakes \u2013 pythons, green tree snakes, keelbacks \u2013 are non-venomous and pose little or no threat. So a crash course in snake ID would make many a removal redundant.<\/p>\n Even a potentially deadly snake will try to avoid conflict, Zdenek says. It will become accustomed to the habitats of people in its territory and stay out of their way \u2013 hence her adage: \u201cbetter the snake you know\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cGet used to the snake,\u201d she advises. \u201cGive it a name. Get it used to you and your movements.\u201d<\/p>\n Embrace the snake, Zdenek says, and your property will have \u201cfree 24\/7 vermin control\u201d. She points to a paper by a biologist, Prof Rick Shine, from last year which estimates a single brown snake eats at least 100 mice a year.<\/p>\n \u201cWould you rather hundreds of rats and mice peeing and pooing everywhere and transferring diseases to us and our pets, and ticks and fleas?\u201d Zdenek asks. \u201cOr would you rather that one snake?\u201d<\/p>\n Certificate presentation at the end of the class. Photograph: David Kelly\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Finally there is the fact that many preventable snake bites happen to people who attempt to kill or catch a snake. Which is a lesson for which Hay provides ample first-hand evidence throughout the course.<\/p>\n You can get bitten by a snake in a bag, Hay says. It has happened to him twice. A bite does not need to draw blood to envenomate, he cautions. Several snake handlers he knew died from making that mistake. There are some snakes you never want to touch and this is one, he says, lifting the bag on a death adder named Princess. At the age of 21, he entered a three-day coma after being bitten by a pet of the same species.<\/p>\n If Zdenek and Hay\u2019s students didn\u2019t have a healthy respect for the danger in dealing with Australia\u2019s most venomous snakes beforehand, they do when they leave the course.<\/p>\n Like Harley Gonzalez, who took the course for a career change from the construction industry.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to jump on snakes, catch them,\u201d he says afterwards. \u201cAnacondas, inland taipans, you name it, I\u2019ve always been obsessed with snakes ever since I was young\u201d.<\/p>\n But Gonzalez says the course left him feeling \u201chumbled\u201d and would see him take a \u201cmore grounded approach\u201d to his snake handling.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to get more experience with some people that have been in the industry a lot longer,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not just gonna go out on my own and take a brown snake out of someone\u2019s bonnet.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll do that with someone first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the backblocks of the Lockyer Valley, more than an hour\u2019s drive west of Brisbane, is a dead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-264876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Deadly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1014.jpg\")
Deadly tiger snake caught after slithering up a driver’s leg on a Melbourne freeway \u2013 video<\/p>\n