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Toddler playing in home's backyard leads to discovery of venomous snake's HUGE nest with 110 eggs

The snake catcher suspected there was at least one nest on the property, but admittedly did not predict the sheer size of the snake nest he found

BY ANITA GOSWAMI

PUBLISHED MAR 15, 2023

The snake catcher made the deadly discovery when he was called to the property after the family's two-year-old child came into contact with a snake hatchling in the backyard (Wild Conservation/Facebook)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: A snake catcher in southwest Sydney felt as though he had "opened a can of worms" after finding more than one hundred highly dangerous snake eggs in an unlucky family's backyard. On Thursday, March 9, Kane Durrant responded to a call from a family whose two-year-old child had come into contact with a snake hatchling.

Durant was aware that there might be a snake nest on the land, but he was unprepared for the size of the nest he discovered. After the snake eggs were discovered, many adult snakes that were allegedly feasting there were also discovered and seized.

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'Now that's WILD!'

"After some digging [we] found 110 hatched eastern brown snake eggs likely from multiple females over several years, indicating a communal or at least annual nesting site," the snake catcher shared on Facebook, confirming things "turned out a little different" than he initially expected. He continued, "The first baby brown showed itself after Kane dug around a little. Then as we lifted the slab, a 3ft Red Bellied Black Snake shot out and was quickly captured, and after a bit more poking around, Rachael spotted a 2ft Eastern Brown Snake slithering at full speed from under the slab. The two larger snakes may have been feeding on the newly hatched Eastern Browns or just hanging out in this obviously prime location." "Both larger snakes were on shed with opaque eyes and rough skin likely due to the overload of food present — frogs, skinks and young snakes everywhere. Now that's WILD!," he added.

Eastern brown snake is one of the deadliest species known to man

The bite of an eastern brown snake is extremely lethal and contains strong presynaptic neurotoxins that cause gradual paralysis. The eastern brown snake has been the source of the majority of snake bites in Australia, according to Billabong Sanctuary Nature Park. Female snakes can lay many clutches in a season and may hatch up to 25 eggs at once. The species frequently uses communal nesting places. The snake catcher indicated that the backyard of the household was the perfect location for snakes to lay their eggs.