Red-bellied Black Snake

Notes:

This was a WIRES call to a 1.5-metre Red-bellied Black Snake tangled in garden netting in a yard in Cherrybrook (northern Sydney). When we got there it was so badly caught up that it was off the ground and couldn't move (see Shot 2). The netting was wrapped tightly around the snake and cutting into its skin from its midsection all the way up to its head. Nath decided to cut out the section of netting in which the snake was tangled, and then he could decide whether to remove the netting there or take the snake home and sort it out (see Shot 3). Once the snake was on the ground, Nath decided to start cutting the netting away from its midsection. The snake was pretty compliant at this point (see Shot 4). The primary photo for this spotting is actually the fourth in the series. Just after I took it the snake decided to make a bid for freedom and lunged away, scaring the crap out of me - I jumped about 6 feet! Red-bellied blacks are generally docile snakes and will flee rather than attack, but they are venomous enough to kill an adult. (I believe there hasn't been a recorded death since the introduction of anti-venom... but I wasn't keen on becoming an unfortunate statistic.) Nath caught it though, and then he HELD ITS HEAD while I helped by cutting away the rest of the netting. What a scary experience! (It was angry and hissed at me a lot.) It wasn't in bad shape, all things considered (a few cuts from the netting, mainly). We didn't have a lot of care experience at that stage, so we took it to some more experienced reptile carers who looked after it until it was ready for release.