43 snake eggs found in play sandpit at Australian school
Wildlife rescuers retrieve dozens of eggs thought to be from of one of the world’s most venomous snakes, the eastern brown
Students at an Australian school have learned a valuable lesson: sandpits make great snake nests.
Wildlife rescuers were shocked when a call to remove about a dozen eggs from a sandpit at a school near the coastal town of Laurieton, 350km north of Sydney, became rather more dramatic.
The eggs caused a stir when they were widely reported on Tuesday as belonging to one of Australia’s deadliest reptiles, the eastern brown snake.
When volunteers from the Fawna wildlife rescue group inspected the sandpit they found it was home to many more than 12 eggs.
Rescuers Yvette Attleir and Rod Miller dug out the sandpit at St Joseph’s Catholic primary school and discovered no fewer than seven snake nests hosting a total of 43 eggs, a new addition to the list of unsavoury things found in a children’s sandpit.
They initially thought the eggs could belong to water dragons, but determined they were brown snake eggs.