A Perth snake catcher has given a deadly reptile a send-off for the ages after it lashed out at him four times while he was trying to release it.
Pauly from Mad Pauly’s Reptile Removal was attempting to relocate a “troublesome” tiger snake after a worried family in Hilbert, in Perth’s south phoned him for help.
Tiger Snakes in WA are usually black with yellow bands. They are one of the world’s deadliest snakes and have a reputation for being aggressive because of the position they take when confronted. They flatten their head and neck and raise up like a cobra, hoping to frighten their provoker – in this case Pauly.
Before he started filming, Pauly had managed to trap the snake in a bin and cover it with a flannelette shirt.
In the video, the snake can be seen trying to attack Pauly when he lifts up the shirt. Luckily the snake wasn’t able to get out of the bin.
“It’s a good-sized Tiger snake and he’s a bit cranky,” Pauly says in the video.
“I don’t think you can reach me up here. Are you gonna have a shot?
“You can’t reach me from up here.”
But the pesky snake wasn’t done, attempting to attack Pauly at least twice more.
“Calm down,” Pauly says.
“How about you p**s off into the bush.”
As the snake “p**sses off” he has another go at Pauly.
“Yes, yes, careful. Ya goose,” Pauly says.
“I’ll leave him here in his new home, far away from people and pets.
“As you can see they’re not intelligent. But I’m super scared. Promise… it worked.”
In the comment section of the video, Pauly said the snake reacted out of fear.
“This is actually a very very scared cornered animal trying to look as big as possible and scary as possible so the thing in front of it will go away and the snake can live,” he wrote before offering some sage advice.
“Their number one survival technique is to run and hide. This is what they have to do when they are in the open or feeling cornered. Biting is their last resort so if you leave a snake alone and give it some distance it will always run and hide.”
There are, on average, between 1000 to 3000 snake bites every year in Australia, according to research conducted by Curtin University.
There have been 58 snake bite-related deaths in the last 40 years in Australia, and 16 in WA.