Discovery Of The Week (12)

While he was looking around his back garden in suburban Sydney, David Stein’s attention was caught by six snakes moving around in a pile of mulch. Establishing that they were the highly venomous red-bellied black snakes, he called in snake catcher, Dylan Cooper.

What made the discovery more amazing was that the adults were about to give birth and in all five adults and 97 babies were removed, two of the adults giving birth to 29 babies in the bag while the clear up operation was under way. Red-bellied black snakes give birth to their young rather than laying eggs and can have a litter between four and 35 babies. They often pile on top of one another prior to giving birth.

One expert thinks that they grouped together for safety or because of a lack of suitable habitat in which to give birth. The snakes were removed to an undisclosed national park and released.