By Antoinette Milienos For Daily Mail Australia
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A traveller got a frightening surprise as one of the world’s most venomous snakes casually slithered its way through a busy Australian airport.
The Australian holidaymaker was sitting at the gate at Brisbane airport on Saturday when he spotted the snake inching towards him.
In a photo shared to Reddit, the man said the snake had gone unnoticed until someone said the ‘S’ word.
The snake, believed to be a eastern brown, was spotted slithering under a row of chairs at a busy Australian airport (pictured)
‘Nobody else had spotted it [the snake] yet, so I didn’t know how to react,’ Reddit user ankilien wrote.
‘Got off the bench… then someone else said the S word, and the whole gate went up in a panic.’
Ankilien said travellers believed it to be a brown snake – the second most venomous in the world – and labelled it ‘one of the most aggressive in the world’.
A Brisbane Airport spokeswoman confirmed a qualified snake catcher had to be called in.
‘It was a bit of a surprise for staff and passengers, but everyone was safely moved to another gate while the unexpected guest was escorted from the terminal building,’ the spokespersons said.
‘A qualified snake catcher relocated the visitor from the Domestic Terminal.
The traveller said the whole gate ‘went up in a panic’ at Brisbane Airport (pictured) when others noticed the reptile
Internet users speculated about the species, with many arguing it was too difficult to identify the reptile from a single picture.
‘It kind of looks like a Yellow-faced Whipsnake but hard to tell. There are many snakes with brown-ish colouring that aren’t Brown snakes,’ one user commented.
‘If it’s a brown that’s a very small brown. Most likely a whip snake or a tree snake at that size. Tree snakes can be green, brown, or even blue,’ another user wrote.
Other users were quick to correct the traveller’s assertion that the snake was ‘defensive’ not ‘aggressive’.
‘Eastern brown’s aren’t aggressive unless you p*** them off or corner them. They’re harmless if you just leave them alone and let professionals deal with them,’ one user wrote.
‘They are not at all aggressive. People rarely get bitten unless they f*** around with them,’ another user commented.
‘There are other snake species known to be far more aggressive,’ a third user chimed.
Other users light-heartedly said a picture of a snake in an airport does not help Australia’s reputation that everything in nature is ‘out to get us’.
‘This is the type of thing that makes the rest of the word think nature is out to get us here in Australia and that snakes and spiders are everywhere,’ the user wrote.
Other users poked fun at the picture of the snake and likened it to the movie ‘Snakes on a Plane’ starring Samuel L Jackson.
‘Samuel L Jackson is not gonna be happy when he hears about this,’ one user wrote.
Another user quoted the film: ‘I’ve had it with these motherf****** snakes in this motherf****** airport!’
Brisbane Airport is home to a vast 285-hectare biodiversity zone for the exclusive use of wildlife.
Pictured: eastern brown snake
The eastern brown snake, often referred to as the common brown snake, is native to eastern and central Australia and can also be found in southern New Guinea.
Adult eastern brown snakes have a slender build and can grow to 2 m in length.
The colour of its surface ranges from pale brown to black, while its underside is pale cream-yellow, often with orange or grey splotches.
Considered the second-venomous snake in the world, after the inland taipan, and if a bite is left untreated can kill a human in half an hour.
The species is responsible for about 60 per cent of human snake-bite deaths in Australia
Symptoms of a brown snake bite:
Systemic envenoming including hypotension and collapse, thrombotic microangiopathy, severe haemorrhage, and cardiac arrest
Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diaphoresis (sweating), abdominal pain, acute kidney injury and seizures.
Symptoms can be rapid with collapse occurring as little as two minutes after being bitten while headache develops in 15 minutes and clotting abnormalities within 30 minutes.
If bitten, apply a pressure bandage to the bite site and call an ambulance immediately.
‘He’s probably travelling with Qantasssssssssssssss,’ another user commented.
‘So an actual snake can get through security and I still have to empty my water bottle just to fill it up from a tap 20 metres on the other side of security,’ a fourth user joked.
The Eastern brown snake is considered the second-most venomous snake in the world, after the inland taipan, and can kill humans if bites are left untreated in just half an hour.
The species is responsible for about 60 per cent of human snake-bite deaths in Australia with
The species can grow to 2 metres in length and are native to eastern and central Australia and southern New Guinea.
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