Snakes have been oddly congregating this spring, much to the surprise of an experienced Orange snake catcher.
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For creatures not typically social, calls to remove small groups of the well-known eastern brown snake have been slithering in more than usual for the Central West.
Licensed snake catcher and optometrist, Jake Hansen, 41, has been running Orange Snake Services for roughly a decade and can only count "on one hand" the number of times he's been pinged to remove multiple snakes in one hit.
"They're not social [reptiles], they don't hang around in groups or in families, and the time we're more likely to see eastern brown snakes is around breeding time, generally in early spring.
"But I've already had three or four jobs this year where there's been multiple browns at the one job, which is extremely rare over the past eight years of snake catching.
With an unseasonably warmer climate flipping the script on usual sightings, Mr Hansen says it's already been an "interesting" season with higher snake activity than the norm.
Colour city hot spots
Orange's two most common snake species Mr Hansen relocates are the copperhead and eastern brown - widely considered the third-most venomous land snake in the world.
Usually skewing about 70 per cent copperheads to 30 per cent browns, the numbers have been tipping the other way this year.
"Copperheads are known as a colder weather snake, so they're the ones that usually become active first when winter kicks in and they're seen a lot during spring,"
"But if it's too warm, they tend not to be out and about too much. Whereas, I've been getting calls for eastern brown snakes a good sort of month earlier than previous years."
Mr Hansen says the browns are also in good body condition this year. Higher rainfall and a recent mouse plague have provided plenty of food for the reptiles.
Of late, the popular places the snake catcher has been called to mark the suburbia areas along the city's edges.
The two main reasons people phone him are due to worries surrounding the safety of children, or dogs being on the premises.
"It's in dogs nature to go and investigate little animals in their territory and it's in a snake's nature to defend themselves in their own space as well, but most of the time, snakes come off second-best," Mr Hansen said.
"But we're not seeing any kind of small or emaciated eastern browns, they're very well-fed at the moment.
"The real hot spots are where there's been new developments as well, they're the biggest hot spots for snakes at the moment and the hardest jobs are where they've been startled to move somewhere that's completely inaccessible."
'Alien' encounters
Those places are usually underneath concrete slabs where they feel secure in a tight space, so it's a waiting game of staying out of eyesight until Mr Hansen can get to them.
While a person can "still definitely be bitten" by doing it, his capturing method is known as "tailing" which he uses to create the least amount of stress for the snake.
People often see a snake as this alien encounter, but we've been co-existing with them for millions of years.
- Orange's licensed snake catcher, Jake Hansen on natural existence between human and snake.
Manoeuvred into a dark bag, they're then placed into a large locked box in his car before being relocated to "pockets of suitable habitat" - in non-people-populated bush land.
"I think what people tend to forget, or don't realise, is that snakes by nature are very shy and extremely scared of us," Mr Hansen said.
"They'll only perceive us to be a threat if the person is actively disturbing them, so the best and ideal outcome is for everyone to leave the snake alone and let it be.
"People often see a snake as this alien encounter, but we've been co-existing with them for millions of years.
"They don't just wander around aimlessly, and usually an adult snake has lived its whole life in and around that same area; it's just we haven't seen it yet."
Eventually moving on, it's why Mr Hansen struggles relocating snakes sometimes, as he understands the disorientation the reptiles face when they're taken out of their habitat.
Which is why he "studies local areas relentlessly" and keeps his focus on the welfare of humans while educating people during the process.
"Relocating them isn't the greatest thing for them, but it is the lesser of two evils when compared with people killing them as the alternative," he said.
"They have a natural 'home range' they're used to living in and they don't fair particularly well when they're taken away; they actually tend to move around a lot more as they're trying to find a new space to settle in.
"So, my best advice is for people to stay calm when they see a snake, be still and sensible, and don't interfere with it.
"People tend to be more disconnected from nature these days, when really, we've been living alongside snakes for centuries; and we can happily co-exist."
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