A couple in Sydney, Australia, learned they were sharing their backyard with over 100 venomous snakes on Feb. 4.
According to a Facebook post from Reptile Relocation Sydney, a licensed snake-catching service, the couple contacted the company for a visit after noticing a few small snakes in their yard.
“Over the last two weeks, the homeowners had sighted a couple of redbellies disappearing into and out of the mulch pile,” Reptile Relocation Sydney wrote in the post. The “redbellies” the company is referring to are red-bellied black snakes, medium-sized venomous snakes found throughout the eastern coast of Australia, according to the Australian Museum.
The homeowners told the snake-catching service that they had spotted four snakes over two weeks, so the experts arrived at the home expecting “to remove the four redbellies that had been seen.” However, once the snake catcher started examining the mulch pile the homeowners had pointed out, they soon realized they were leaving with way more than four reptiles.
“Dylan was the man for the job and got straight to work going through the mulch. Within a few minutes, we knew this was going to be unusual,” Reptile Relocation Sydney’s post recounted.
Snake catcher Dylan uncovered “snake after snake” digging through the mulch and soon had a bucket filled with over 100 snakes.
“Long story short, we went for four adults and came out with 102 snakes in total — 97 newborn redbellies and five adults,” the post concluded. Reptile Relocation Sydney also included a video with its shocking social media announcement. In the clip, dozens of red-bellied black snakes wriggle over each other in a white bucket.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“When Dylan was just catching, catching, catching, the homeowners actually put some boots and long pants on and came out to help,” Cory from Reptile Relocation Sydney told Yahoo News Australia, adding that he doesn’t know if “anyone’s caught any more in one property at one time.”
Reptile Relocation Sydney will relocate all of the snakes to an undisclosed area away from the heavily populated Syndey suburbs where the animals were found.
Cory added to Yahoo News Australia that female red-bellied black snakes often share birthing sites and that the mulch pile provided perfect conditions and a stable temperature for the mother snakes. While finding multiple adult and baby snakes together is common, Cory said finding 102 reptiles in one spot was “pretty bizarre.”
Read the full article here
