Aussie Snake Wrangler Stuart McKenzie on near misses and how he survives his deadly job

Some would call them crazy brave, others just plain crazy – Aussie Snake Wranglers star Stuart McKenzie reveals his near misses with some of the world’s deadliest critters.

The first rule of Bite Club is you don’t want to join Bite Club.

Miraculously, apart from a few nips from peeved pythons, in all his years of bagging and relocating some of the most dangerous and venomous reptiles in the world as the owner of Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers, Stuart McKenzie has managed to avoid doing just that.

That’s not to say he hasn’t come close a few times – in last year’s opening episode of the first season of National Geographic’s sleeper hit Aussie Snake Wranglers, he had an up-close-and-personal encounter with an eastern brown (the world’s second most venomous snake), and he’s also nearly been bitten in the face by a red-bellied black.

“I’ve had a few close calls in the show,” McKenzie admits, “but I have steered clear of it so far.”

He’s continued to ride his luck – not to mention his skills and reflexes – in the second season, which airs next week. At one point he’s juggling two mating eastern browns, who aren’t too pleased about having their amorous activities interrupted and come perilously close to giving him a good chomp to let him know. But another member of his team wasn’t so lucky in season two, joining season one stars Mick and Chris in the infamous club.

Stuart McKenzie from Aussie Snake Wranglers on Foxtel’s National Geographic.

“There is another member to the Bite Club,” McKenzie confirms of the coming episodes. “I won’t reveal what it was because that would give too much away, but it’s a good one. I was kind of at fault because at the time I was actually handling the snake and I was in a bit of a precarious situation, so I passed this particular person the snake and, as soon they grabbed it off me, it bit them on the arm. They tried to blame me but I was like, ‘Well, hold on a second, you were touching it last, so it’s not my fault’.”

McKenzie, who studied zoology and marine biology at university and got his catching chops handling crocs and reptiles at Australia Zoo, says the imminent danger of his work – all the cases featured in the reality show are actual call-outs from Sunshine Coast residents – helps to keep him and his team on their toes.

The Queensland region is one of the most snake-prone in the country, with more than 20 different species calling it home, and the company deals with up to 30 distress calls every day, at all hours of the day and night. McKenzie says he’s found snakes in all manner of places, from couches and toilets to beds and bathrooms – and even once found an 8-foot python curled up in the interior of an oven.

Worried residents will sometimes send a picture of the snake in question ahead of time – they also remove goannas and marsupials – and McKenzie says the anticipation can be unbearable.

“Especially when you go to those jobs where it’s highly venomous, like an eastern brown snake or a red-bellied in a precarious area, like on the move in the backyard. It definitely goes through your head, especially when you’re about to just go for that grab.

Stuart McKenzie (centre) and the Aussie Snake Wranglers team.

“I’ve watched a few of my videos back and, a lot of them, I take a deep breath before lunging in for the grab. It certainly plays on your mind. You can’t think about too much because if you start getting yourself distracted or worrying about it, that’s when you will get bitten, if you’re not concentrating 100 per cent.”

Aussie Snake Wranglers, which became one of National Geographic’s most successful local shows, came into being after McKenzie noticed the popularity of the work videos that he posted to the company’s social media. As terrified and repulsed as the general public may be of the scaly, slithery creatures, there is also a fascination with them – especially when observed from a safe distance. But, he says, they get a bad rap, both for their appearance and stealth, as well as from generations of bad advice from those who don’t know any better.

“They’ve probably been told by their parents to fear snakes and that snakes are aggressive, and they’re deadly and they’re out to get you,” he says. “Advice passed down from generations is probably one of them. And they’re all false – everything that your parents have told us is usually false when it comes to snakes.”

JIM JEFFERIES BLUNT MESSAGE TO THE WOKE

13 REASONS WHY STAR’S NEW AUSSIE ROLE

ROB BRYDON’S EMBARRASSING POOL MOMENT

McKenzie says his part of mission for both the business and the reality TV show is to educate the keyboard warriors and panic merchants who think the only good snake is a dead snake. Some of the snakes captured in the show are selected to take part in lifesaving venom research, but most of them are safely released back into the wild.

“Most of the time we can bring people around, but often there’s a generation of a 60 or 70-year-olds and they’ve always got their own snake stories about the time one chased them and all this sort of rubbish, and no matter what we tell them, it just doesn’t change their mind,” he says. “But, yeah, it is a tough one sometimes. It’s a delicate balancing act when you’re dealing with this sort of thing. We do our best to try and bring everybody around.”

Aussie Snake Wranglers premieres September 13, 8.30pm, National Geographic

Originally published as Aussie Snake Wrangler Stuart McKenzie on near misses and how he survives his deadly job