A cache of snake eggs caused alarm after being discovered in the sandpit of an Australian school playground, it was reported Tuesday.
Wildlife volunteers said the eggs were from the world’s second most venomous snake, the eastern brown snake, and were found late last
month at a school in the small town of Laurieton, almost 400 kilometres north of Sydney.
The volunteers spent three days digging in the playground, where they uncovered seven nests packed with eggs that were two weeks away from
hatching, For Australian Wildlife Needing Aid (FAWNA) spokeswoman Yvette Attleir told the Camden Haven Courier.
“The sand was still fresh and loose and would have provided the perfect place for snakes to regulate eggs due to the temperature,” Attleir said.
“I believed they were brown snake eggs due to the fact that they were seen in the area and that when I shone a light through the egg I saw
a small striped baby snake,” fellow volunteer Rod Miller told The Guardian.
The eastern brown snake is the species responsible for most deaths caused by snakebite in Australia, but better first aid and access to antivenom mean there are usually only one or two deaths per year, the Australian Reptile Park said on its website.
