Snakes in the grass, under the piano, by the pool, in the prison
SUNSHINE COAST, AUSTRALIA >> The phone rings. It's the local prison. There's a snake in a cell. Within a few hours, snakes also have been spotted at a school, beneath a piano stored in a private garage and near a lagoon-like swimming pool at a retirement home. Customers want them gone.
Business has never been so good for Stuart McKenzie, who runs a snakecatching service in the Sunshine Coast, a verdant enclave along miles of pristine beach in the vast Australian state of Queensland. On the busiest days, he can receive more than 35 calls about troublesome snakes.
Queensland is home to the largest number of snake species in Australia — about 120. Of those, two-thirds are venomous and a handful are deadly. Throughout Australia, fatalities from snake bites remain extremely rare — about two a year — and in Queensland, the reptiles are simply a part of life.
In the cooler months of the year — historically from April to September — snakes become sluggish and may not eat, drink, defecate or even move for weeks at a time. But as the world warms and the climate in southern Queensland shifts from subtropical to tropical, this period of brumation is shrinking — meaning more run-ins between humans and the animals.
“Not only are snakes becoming more active earlier in the year and staying active longer in the year, but it also means that they're going to stay active longer into the night,” said Bryan Fry, a professor of biology at the University of Queensland.
On nights with temperatures above about 82 degrees Fahrenheit, he said, snakes will remain active all night long.
McKenzie, 35, of Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, says his winter break is getting shorter and shorter.
On one recent job, a 4-foot brown snake — the world's second-most venomous snake species, despite the understated name — was wedged between a fly screen and a window, and needed to be taken out. More straightforward was a request to remove a nonvenomous carpet python, its body intricately patterned with whorls and swirls, coiled in the depths of a shed. (Snake removal fees start at 154 Australian dollars, or about $100.)
With the population of the Sunshine Coast projected to increase more than 50% to about half a million people in the 25 years to 2041, deforestation is happening at speed. More housing is being built, and many snakes who once dwelled in native bush land are finding sanctuary — and a reliable source of food and water — in homes intended for humans.