adminDid this snake kill itself using its own venom?
It certainly looked that way when Matt Hagan from Cairns Snake Catchers found the dead snake on Saturday still plunging its fangs into its own neck.
He was called to a home at Earville, just south-west of Cairns, after a woman found the 1.5 metre brown tree snake on her doorstep.
“Usually when the snake is outside, it goes away after a while and no one ever sees it again. But she said it was still wriggling after half an hour so I went over to relocate it,” Hagan told Daily Mail Australia.
“I could immediately see something wasn’t quite right with the snake. When I picked it up I noticed it was still biting down firmly on its neck. I thought what on earth – it looked like it had bitten its own neck and died.”
Hagan took the snake to a vet to see if he could shed light on how it died.
“He checked to see if it had been run over, but the only thing he could find was swelling near the bite,” Hagan said.
“It must have been stung by something and died. Apparently when they do have a trauma they do try and bite around the area. I suspect the snake didn’t end its own life on purpose, but was possibly in severe pain and ended up in this unfortunate position.”
In his 10 years as a snake catcher, Hagan said he hasn’t come across a dead snake still latched onto itself.
“It’s just a really odd catch.” – AFP
Online Reporter