A mother was horrified when she spotted one of the world's most venomous snakes lurking in the background of a photo she took of her children.
Having initially believed it was an innocent photo of her two children walking hand in hand in a nature reserve, Alanna couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the deadly eastern brown snake mere inches away from her son's foot.
Essentially, her two kids were inches away from a potentially life-threatening attack on an otherwise ordinary day out in the Australian town of Eskdale in north east Victoria.
The eastern brown snake is the second most venomous snake in the world after the inland taipan, also native to Australia. Alarmingly, the creature can cause cardiac arrest just minutes after biting its victim and is responsible for about 41 per cent of all snake deaths in Australia.
One woman got bitten by a snake while asleep:A snake catcher called Barry Goldsmith shared the eyeopening photo after Alanna's father Mark sent it to him:
"Mark sent me this pic his daughter Alanna took of her kids as they skipped down a track on his property on the Mitta Mitta river. No one saw the large eastern brown snake until they looked at the pics later. The snake saw them coming and watched as they unknowingly skipped past."
Check out the incredible moment one scuba diver had a face to face encounter with a giant, seven-metre-long anaconda in a Brazilian river:"Really goes to show snakes are not aggressive and just need respect. Pretty cool huh. Thank you, Mark, for sending me the pic and for your understanding and compassion for the animals that we share our beautiful country with. Zoom in to the ground on the right of the kids. Please be careful, take care this summer, and be nice to snakes."
