Catcher calls for help

Rare sightings in the Gascoyne coastal region of several orange-naped snakes has prompted the local snake catcher to call on the public for help in collecting information.

Snake catcher Rob Newman said the orange-naped snake — sited slithering recently in Carnarvon and Exmouth — was usually only found up north or inland.

He said these snakes generally did not bite and were not harmful to the local ecosystem, but encouraged inexperienced snake handlers to keep their distance.

Mr Newman has called on the public for help collecting data, asking people to contact him if they find one so he can come and take it off their hands.

“I want to know about their size, if they are male or female and about any colour morphs,” he said.

He said the data could help him get to the bottom of the reptilian mystery, offering a few early theories.

Mr Newman said the snakes could be hitching rides with some of the southern holidaymakers heading back from “wanders up yonder” in the State’s Pilbara and Kimberly regions.

He also said recent heavy rainfall further north had enticed the snakes to move down south.

Or that over-breeding in the inland population had created resource scarcity.