Boy's egg collection turns into snakes
2012-12-21 08:21
Canberra - A 3-year-old Australian boy was lucky to escape
uninjured after a collection of eggs he found in his yard hatched into a
slithering tangle of deadly snakes.
Reptile carer Trish Prendergast said on Friday that young
wildlife enthusiast Kyle Cummings could have been killed if he had handled the
eastern brown snakes — the world's most venomous species on land after
Australia's inland taipan.
Kyle found a clutch of nine eggs a few weeks ago in the
grass on his family's 1.2-hectare property on the outskirts of the city of
Townsville in Queensland state, Prendergast said. He had no idea what kind of
eggs they were.
He put the eggs into a plastic takeout food container and
stashed them in his bedroom closet, where his mother, Donna Sim, found them on Monday.
Seven had hatched, but the snakes remained trapped under the container's lid.
The remaining two eggs were probably infertile and were rotten, Prendergast
said.
"I was pretty shocked, particularly because I don't
like snakes," Sim told the Townsville Bulletin newspaper.
Prendergast, who is the Townsville-based reptile co-ordinator
of the volunteer group North Queensland Wildlife Care, was handed the container
on Tuesday and released the snakes into the wild that night.
She was relieved that no one had handled the snakes.
Venomous
"Their fangs are only a few millimetres long at that
age, so they probably couldn't break the skin, but they're just as venomous as
full-grown snakes," Prendergast said.
"If venom had got on Kyle's skin where there was a cut
of if he put it in his mouth, it could have been fatal," she added.
Eastern brown snakes — which can grow to more than 2m —
usually stay with their eggs but sometimes leave for short periods to feed.
"He's very lucky he didn't encounter the mother while
he was taking her eggs. That also could have been fatal," Prendergast
said.
The snakes were 12 to 15cm long and had probably hatched
around five days before they were released, she said, adding that they were
thirsty but otherwise healthy.
Australia averages around three fatal snake bites a year,
and eastern browns are responsible for 60% of the country's fatalities.
Sim did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on
Friday.
- AP
