iH: Have you previously ever had any
close calls?
KX: Not really; one or two maybe. I
can remember one occasion when a
Stephens’ Banded Snake came a bit
too close. I put that down to a
momentary lapse of concentration,
plus the fact that the animal was a
long-term captive and usually calm
and predictable.
iH: OK, so what can you tell us about
the snake that bit you?
KX: It’s an adult male Spotted Black
Snake (Pseudechis guttatus), about
five feet long, that I have had for
approximately seven years, so I
know it pretty well. Inside its
enclosure it is a typical black snake -
very food conscious - but once out-
side the cage it is very well-behaved.
Day 1
iH: How is it housed?
KX: It’s in a melamine enclosure
with sliding glass doors that
measures four feet by two feet by 18
inches high.
Day 1
iH: And how did you come to be
bitten?
KX: Well, I was cleaning the cage.
The snake had been fed four or five
days beforehand, but black snakes
are always hungry. The water bowl
was up one end of the enclosure,
and the snake was under the paper
substrate, right up the other end, or
so it appeared. I thought it was safe
to remove the water bowl before
taking the snake out, but the snake
was actually closer than I thought
and came flying out and got me
about two-thirds of the way up my
thumb. To be honest, I broke a
couple of my own rules; it was later
in the evening than I would have
liked (about 9:30 p.m.), and I wasn’t
as fresh as I should have been.
iH: What happened next?
Day 2