Photo: Montes Claros Fire Department
Wild animals can have really wild interactions with human beings. Sometimes, they may surprise you just while making something so simple as adjusting air vents. This is probably what happened to a 34-year-old woman in Montes Claros, Brazil: a small snake was hiding there and bit her hand on December 11.
According to G1, the unidentified woman was with her husband and their newborn son, who was in her arms when the snake attacked. The baby was not hurt. Although she did not seem afraid, her husband drove immediately to a fire station to ask for help: the snake was still hiding inside the air ducts.
The firefighters removed the air vent behind which the snake was and captured it, not forgetting to take pictures of the unusual incident. The vehicle is a Fiat, but it is hard to identify exactly which based solely on the air vents: they belong to the Palio family, which had the hatchback with the same name, the Siena (a sedan), the Palio Weekend (a station wagon), and the small unibody pickup truck called Strada. Those triangular air vents were sold from 2001 until 2004.
Initially, the firefighters identified the animal as a jibóia (Boa constrictor), a non-venomous snake. However, zoologists consulted by G1 later corrected that information: it was actually a young, 30-centimeter (11.8-inch) banded cat-eyed snake (Leptodeira annulata), which has venom but is not dangerous to humans. The firefighters asked the woman to wash her arm and pay attention to any reactions to the wounded area in her arm.
For those concerned about the snake, the firefighters later released it in an environmental protection area where these snakes are more common. Hopefully, this one will never get close to another air vent for the rest of her life. As that is impossible for the woman who was bitten, we think she will ask her husband to regulate the air vents – at least for a little while. She will also tell this story to her newborn as soon as he can understand it.
The firefighters removed the air vent behind which the snake was and captured it, not forgetting to take pictures of the unusual incident. The vehicle is a Fiat, but it is hard to identify exactly which based solely on the air vents: they belong to the Palio family, which had the hatchback with the same name, the Siena (a sedan), the Palio Weekend (a station wagon), and the small unibody pickup truck called Strada. Those triangular air vents were sold from 2001 until 2004.
Initially, the firefighters identified the animal as a jibóia (Boa constrictor), a non-venomous snake. However, zoologists consulted by G1 later corrected that information: it was actually a young, 30-centimeter (11.8-inch) banded cat-eyed snake (Leptodeira annulata), which has venom but is not dangerous to humans. The firefighters asked the woman to wash her arm and pay attention to any reactions to the wounded area in her arm.
For those concerned about the snake, the firefighters later released it in an environmental protection area where these snakes are more common. Hopefully, this one will never get close to another air vent for the rest of her life. As that is impossible for the woman who was bitten, we think she will ask her husband to regulate the air vents – at least for a little while. She will also tell this story to her newborn as soon as he can understand it.
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