19-05-2025
Qld pair teach how to safely handle venomous snakes, tackling 'persistent myths'
Would you consider taking on venomous snake handling training if it meant you'd be safer around snakes?
Queensland snake experts Chris Hay and Christina Zdenek want more Australians to educate themselves with a few key facts about snakes and snake behaviour.
The pair offer venomous snake handling training and snake ecology courses.
"Back in the day when I was learning, you had to basically learn through experience, whether that went good or bad, so it's great to be able to offer this sort of thing to people," Mr Hay added.
Dr Zdenek is a scientist whose spent years studying snakes, as well as working hands-on with the reptiles doing travelling snake shows, scientific field work and antivenom testing.
The couple are passionate about promoting a broader understanding and appreciation of snakes, and busting what they call "persistent myths" about the reptiles.
"That they're aggressive, that they want to chase us and strike at us and bite us and you know, the opposite couldn't be more true," Dr Zdenek said.
Mr Hay said the pair wanted to counter the misinformation.
"We just want the truth to get out there about snakes, " he said.
The self-confessed "snake-obsessed" pair now share their home with a collection of 40 reptiles, about 25 of which are venomous snakes.
"We've got coastal taipans, inland taipan, eastern brown snakes, Collett's black snake, red-bellied black snake, death adders, tiger snakes, pale-headed snakes, woma pythons and strap-snouted brown snakes," Dr Zdenek said.
The couple's snakes feature in their venomous snake handling training, allowing participants a chance to experience real-life encounters with some of the world's most venomous reptiles.
"We get people from professional backgrounds," Mr Hay said.
Step-by-step, the class is shown the correct handling techniques and why it's important to do it a certain way.
Participant Joel Young, a groundskeeper at a private school in Yatala, recently encountered both an eastern brown and a green tree snake on campus.
"Just yesterday, there was an eastern brown," he said.
Understandably, participants start out handling less dangerous snakes and work their way up to the venomous ones.
Wildlife spotter Charley Rayner said the course gave her confidence to handle stressful situations on job sites.
As well as mitigating the risks that come with working closely with snakes, the course also offers people valuable insight into what to expect if things go wrong.
Mr Hay has had five hospitalisations from venomous snake bites over the course of his 40-year career and Dr Zdenek has been bitten once.
"We don't brag about the fact that we've been bitten," Dr Zdenek said.
Sharing those experiences, both the good and the bad, is an important part of the education offered to those who do the course.
They're also walked through some fundamentals of first aid in the event of a snake bite.
"We've got the Royal Flying Doctor Service," Dr Zdenek said.
"So as long as you do that first aid — the stretchy elastic bandage, pressure immobilisation technique and stand still, don't go crazy, keep that heart rate down — then you'll be in good hands."
Dr Zdenek cautions not everyone is cut out to wrangle potentially deadly animals.
But she argues in a country that's home to many of the world's most venomous snakes, having some basic snake safety information is a must.
"If you encounter a snake, you just stop moving and you're not going to scare that snake into a strike."
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