Gavin Smith rescuing a snake from a stormwater drain. Photo: ACT Snake Removals.
The ACT has recorded its busiest snake season yet, according to ACT Snake Removals’ head snake catcher.
Outside his day job as an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Australian National University (ANU), Dr Gavin Smith drives all over the ACT during the warmer months, answering calls to relocate snakes from backyards, cars, and even from inside Coke cans (more on that later).
During snake season between September and April each year, Dr Smith and his team typically attends over 300 callouts, but he says this year “set a new record”.
“Despite operating part-time, the past season has been the busiest yet for us – we had 25 calls one day,” he says.
Eastern brown snakes were most commonly reported – “a good indicator that the local ecosystem is recovering post-drought and fires”.
“We’ve also seen a slight increase in non-endemic species turning up, such as carpet pythons. They are usually escaped pets, but sometimes they arrive after inadvertently hitching a ride on a vehicle from another region.”
Dr Smith says there are “several reasons” for the rise in numbers.
“People are becoming more aware of the snake-catching services operating in the region through their engagement with different forms of media, and they know it is a criminal offence to harm a snake, while also being dangerous and unnecessary,” he says.
“Snake population numbers are also quite robust at the moment as a result of favourable environmental conditions locally over the past four years.
“Lastly, as new suburbs progressively populate, we are seeing rising numbers of calls in those places for snake removal, as local snakes who have lost their natural habitat are forced to adapt to an urban way of life.”
But as with all seasons, Dr Smith says it’s also come with its “fair share of tricky situations”, including snake rescues from cars and shoes left outdoors.
“Noteworthy ones include the brown snake that needed rescuing from a deep stormwater drain, the red-belly in the back of a fridge/freezer and the brown snake that got himself stuck in the plastic cover of a stormwater drain,” he says.
“The eastern brown, about six feet up on a shelf in an active bird aviary, was certainly one of these. The eastern brown stuck in a gap between a roof cavity and bedroom wardrobe was another, and the poor eastern brown with its head trapped in a Coke can on the hard shoulder of a motorway.”
In recent years, he’s also had to remove an Oriental Rat Snake from a hotel room after it had snuck into a person’s suitcase in Bali and somehow made it through two sets of border checks.
A close one. Photo: ACT Snake Removals.
“I have also had to extricate a number of snakes from fruit netting, which is disappointing, given that wildlife-friendly netting is widely available and good information and legislation are out there on this issue.”
Dr Smith accepts a small service fee to cover his overheads, and has received two environment grants from the ACT Government in the past.
In March 2024, he asked the government to make snake catching a “contracted public service” in an online petition, which would allow snake catchers like Dr Smith to be paid by the government to handle snakes.
The government ultimately put the kibosh on it, arguing snake-catching was too “sporadic” and “with frequent troughs of many days without callouts, or days where several callouts may be received”.
Since then, six more volunteers have joined ACT Snake Removals, which Dr Smith says “helps a bit with meeting the increasing demand”.
But he also expects bigger and bigger seasons as Canberra expands its urban footprint – and more yards become “attractive to snakes” pushed out of their natural habitats – and he says he’ll “continue to press for change”.
“Going forward, I feel this service should be jointly subsidised by the ACT Government and by local developers, both of whom are implicated in the clearing and commodification of the landscapes these animals have inhabited for millions of years.
“But more than anything, we need some licensing reform and more government-funded programs to create opportunities for highly experienced and qualified snake specialists to engage and educate the public in different ways about the snakes we share an environment with.
“The fear of snakes is very high in our community.”
ACT Snake Removals is available 24/7 via email (admin@actsnakeremovals.com) or phone 0450 210 090.
