Fall 2021 Children's Sneak Previews
Video Shows Poisonous Snake Curled Up On Bed Among Child's Stuffed Animals In Australia
An Australian family got a shocking serp-prize when they found a poisonous snake curled up among several stuffed animals on their child's bed.
Like something out of a horror movie, or someone's worst nightmare, the red-bellied black snake was discovered in the child's bedroom on Sunday morning in the town of Jimboomba, about 30 miles south of Brisbane.
Video of the encounter was posted to Facebook by Snake Catchers Brisbane & Gold Coast. It showed Bryce Lockett taking on the nearly 3-foot serpent.
Lockett is seen on video approaching the bed, removing one of the girl's stuffed toys and exposing the snake.
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Bryce Lockett of Snake Catchers Brisbane & Gold Coast removes a venomous red-bellied black snake from a child's bed in Australia. (Bryce Lockett via Storyful)
"Definitely not what you want in a bed," Lockett said.
He then used a snake hook tool to lift the snake before grabbing it near its tail and lowering it to the ground.
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Bryce Lockett pulls the snake out of the bed. (Bryce Lockett via Storyful)
"There he is," Lockett said. "It looks like he's about to shed his skin. He's a bit light on the belly."
After lowering the snake to the ground, he guided it toward a bag, which it eventually slithered into.
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The snake slithered into a bag. (Bryce Lockett via Storyful)
Lockett then picked the tall bag up and removed the reptilian intruder from the property.
"Red-bellied Black Snakes are one of the most frequently encountered snakes on the east coast of Australia, and are responsible for a number of bites every year," the Australian Museum says on its website. "Despite the number of bites received every year, very few human deaths have resulted."
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The museum explains that many of the snake's bite victims "experience only mild or negligible" symptoms, although some end up being hospitalized.
Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.
Story tips and can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.Com and on Twitter @GregWehner.
Eastern Coral Snake
Common Name: Eastern Coral Snake Scientific Name: Micrurus fulvius Average Life Span In Captivity: Up to 7 years Size relative to a 6-ft man: IUCN Red List Status:? Least concernLeast Concern Extinct
Current Population Trend: StableA bite from the notoriously venomous eastern coral snake at first seems anticlimactic.
VenomThere is little or no pain or swelling at the site of the bite, and other symptoms can be delayed for 12 hours. However, if untreated by antivenin, the neurotoxin begins to disrupt the connections between the brain and the muscles, causing slurred speech, double vision, and muscular paralysis, eventually ending in respiratory or cardiac failure.
This iconic snake, with its bulbous head and red, yellow, and black bands, is famous as much for its potent venom as for the many rhymes—"Red and yellow, kill a fellow; red and black, friend of Jack"—penned to distinguish it from similarly patterned, nonvenomous copycats, such as the scarlet king snake.
Behavior and HabitatCoral snakes are extremely reclusive and generally bite humans only when handled or stepped on. They must literally chew on their victim to inject their venom fully, so most bites to humans don't result in death. In fact, no deaths from coral snake bites have been reported in the U.S. Since an antivenin was released in 1967.
Eastern coral snakes are relatives of the cobra, mamba, and sea snake. They live in the wooded, sandy, and marshy areas of the southeastern United States, and spend most of their lives burrowed underground or in leaf piles.
They eat lizards, frogs, and smaller snakes, including other coral snakes. Baby snakes emerge from their eggs 7 inches long and fully venomous. Adults reach about 2 feet in length. Average lifespan in the wild is unknown, but they can live up to seven years in captivity.
Flying Snakes
Common Name: Flying Snakes Scientific Name: Chrysopelea Size relative to a 6-ft man:The image of airborne snakes may seem like the stuff of nightmares (or a certain Hollywood movie), but in the jungles of South and Southeast Asia it is reality.
In the AirFlying snake is a misnomer, since, barring a strong updraft, these animals can't actually gain altitude. They're gliders, using the speed of free fall and contortions of their bodies to catch the air and generate lift.
Once thought to be more parachuters than gliders, recent scientific studies have revealed intricate details about how these limbless, tube-shaped creatures turn plummeting into piloting. To prepare for take-off, a flying snake will slither to the end of a branch, and dangle in a J shape. It propels itself from the branch with the lower half of its body, forms quickly into an S, and flattens to about twice its normal width, giving its normally round body a concave C shape, which can trap air. By undulating back and forth, the snake can actually make turns. Flying snakes are technically better gliders than their more popular mammalian equivalents, the flying squirrels.
Scientists don't know how often or exactly why flying snakes fly, but it's likely they use their aerobatics to escape predators, to move from tree to tree without having to descend to the forest floor, and possibly even to hunt prey.
PopulationThere are five recognized species of flying snake, found from western India to the Indonesian archipelago. Knowledge of their behavior in the wild is limited, but they are thought to be highly arboreal, rarely descending from the canopy. The smallest species reach about 2 feet in length and the largest grow to 4 feet.
DietTheir diets are variable depending on their range, but they are known to eat rodents, lizards, frogs, birds, and bats. They are mildly venomous snakes, but their tiny, fixed rear fangs make them harmless to humans.
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