One of the "most notorious" venomous snakes Down Under popped up where a parent would least want to find one—inside the house, on Christmas night. Per Yahoo News Australia, reptile catcher Mark Pelley got a call shortly before midnight on Wednesday after a family in the Melbourne suburb of South Morang said they spotted a slithering creature in their home that shouldn't have been. In a video posted to social media, Pelley can be seen at the residence lifting up a baby bouncer, revealing a tongue-flicking tiger snake huddled up against the edge of a rug.
"The snake could have been there for a lot longer, and it could have been crawling ... around the baby's toys, but they just didn't notice it," Pelley says. "It was a real Christmas Day surprise." Tiger snakes are the fifth most venomous snake on the planet, and even though it's on the smallish side, "it's still incredibly deadly," Pelley adds. "They hide in the most unique places inside the home."
UPI notes the snake was safely removed from the home, with no injuries reported. Earlier this month, a tiger snake had to be taken out of a home in Tasmania after it was discovered in a resident's clothes closet. Despite these recent incidents, People cites a University of Melbourne report noting that, due to "human modification of the environment, chiefly for agricultural purposes," there's been a drop in the number of tiger snakes in Australia. Now, the eastern brown snake is the species behind most snakebites there. (More snakes stories.)
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