A plague of mice in New South Wales, Australia has given rise to a bumper crop of sex-crazed snakes. Now, flooding in the region has forced the snakes to higher ground where they will be more likely to encounter people and their property.
Mouse plagues in Australia are nothing new. Records dating back to 1900 show that these plagues occur every four to five years across the country. However, the outbreak in New South Wales last year was the worst in living memory.
Thousands of mice descended on farms and houses across the state, and one family even lost their home to a fire that authorities believe was started by a mouse chewing through electrical wiring.
The mouse plague is not bad news for everybody, though: the state's snake population is thriving.
"The recent mouse plague provided plenty of food for the state's snake numbers, with reports of an increase in size and numbers," a spokesperson for the NSW Farmers Association told 7NEWS.com.au.
In October, the Australian Reptile Park warned of a bumper snake season this year due to unusually wet weather on Australia's East coast. Not only does the wet weather force them out of their underground burrows, but it forces their prey out as well.
Sarah Thompson of the NSW Farmers Rural Affairs Committee said in a statement that many of the committee's members have reported an increase in snake sightings. "Just yesterday one of our members said she saw three black snakes near her place in a really short space of time, and it's been like this for a while," she said.
Snake catcher Matt Stopford told NBN News that his workload was increasing by the day as the snakes started searching for mates and food.
Now, as the weather turns warmer in the southern hemisphere, the snakes are getting ready to breed, Billy Collett of the Australian Reptile Park told 7NEWS.com.au. "All their stars have aligned. They've got great environmental conditions, there's lots of food, lots of shelter—and they're going to be breeding."
The Australian Reptile Park also said that the hotter weather is more likely to force snakes into people's homes and sheds as they seek shelter from the heat.
Thompson advised residents to keep lawns short and avoid piling up household items for them to hide under.
"People just need to use some common sense," she said. "Keep an eye out and be extra careful!"
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Pandora Dewan is a Senior Science Reporter at Newsweek based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on science, health ... Read more
