Adelaide Hills Snake Catcher’s bizarre find at Hahndorf property

A snake wrangler called to a Hahndorf property braved a long brown snakes, while it was devouring another snake.

Two brown snakes captured on a Hahndorf property. Picture: Facebook/Simonhempel

A Hahndorf property owner was confronted by the bizarre sight of two long brown snakes seemingly coiled up on her property, before snake catchers came to the rescue.

After initially believing two coiled up brown snakes were mating, the Hills resident found out she was very wrong after Adelaide Hill Snake Catcher Simon Hempel arrived at around 8.30pm on Wednesday night.

“I normally get quite a few (call-outs) at that property. It’s a reasonably large property, with a creek running through it,” Mr Hempel said.

“She thought the two snakes were mating but I was thinking, ‘Wow, it’s not mating season yet’.”

When Mr Hempel arrived, he said the two snakes were intertwined and camouflaged under leaves.

“I thought it might have been two territorial males fighting, because she said one snake was thrashing around,” Mr Hempel said.

Mr Hempsel said as he examined the pair realised one snake had already died, either “from envenomation or constriction by the other snake”.

“The other snake wasn’t doing much, so I thought it might be one snake eating another snake, and when I got there, that’s what it was,” he said.

Mr Hempel said he tried to capture the “decent sized brown snakes,” by grabbing the living snake by the tail and placing it in the net.

Snake wrangler Simon Hempel at work on the Hahndorf property. Picture: Facebook. Adelaide Hills Snake Catcher

“There was no way I could have lifted it (the alive snake) into the net bag, so I bent down to grab the dead one by the tail in the same hand, then the alive one let go of the food,” Mr Hempel said.

The property owner was not injured before Adelaide Hills Snake Catchers’ arrived, and Mr Hempsel released the alive snake in the scrubland around the Adelaide Hills.

“I have to be careful though, I obviously don’t let them go near other houses and I don’t put them in the same spot because it wrecks the ecology.” Mr Hempsel said.

Anyone found to have killed a snake could receive a $10,000 or a prison sentence.

“They’re a protected species, so you’re not allowed to kill them,” he said.

Last week, another eastern brown snake was spotted outside ALDI’s Adelaide Airport store.