An Aussie family has sent a warning to posties to watch out for a new resident hiding in their mailbox. Sharing a photo and video to Facebook, the mother-of-two revealed exactly who had moved in.
In the image, a sign can be seen hanging off the letterbox on a rural property, with the body of a long reptile hanging out. "Snake hibernating inside," the note reads. "Please put mail on top under the rock! Thanks."
"Just thought I'd share our good old mate," the woman explained in the caption. "He is always around."
Social media users hailed the sight as something that would happen "only in Australia". "This is the sort of mail I would prefer," one user responded, while another described the surprise guest as "beautiful and special". "Gorgeous, love that he's got a little safe spot for a snooze," commented someone else.
Don't get too close
Snake catcher Sean Cade from Australian Snake Catchers explained that the carpet python isn't venomous, but said the reptile could still do some serious damage with its razor-sharp teeth.
He agreed it was a good idea for a warning sign to be attached to the mailbox. "The people are obviously comfortable with the snake being there and it's a good thing that they're happy for it to be there, but that doesn't mean the postman isn't going to stick his hand in there and it's not going to attack him," Cade told Yahoo News Australia.
"That snake would probably have upwards of 100 teeth and they recurve so when they grab prey the prey can't get away."
While an attack could cause someone to "bleed quite a bit", there is also the chance that the snake's teeth could break off and the wound could become infected. "Although it's a carpet python, it's not without its complications," Cade said.
Real reason for the snake’s hideout
As for "hibernating", Cade explained that for snakes it's called brumation, which are sporadic bursts of activity, but it's not the right season for it. Instead, the reptile expert believes the snake could have potentially taken up residence inside the letterbox because it's shedding its skin.
"Their eyesight is very poor at the best of times and when they're shedding their skin it's even more so because they shed their eye scales as well," he explained. "So they have their eye scales come away from their eyes and their eyesight is very poor, so they're susceptible to predators and things, so it very well may have just gone in there.
"So it could be in that process, which could take a couple of weeks depending on the health of the snake, or maybe it was trying to get away from a predator."