A toddler was hospitalized after a venomous snake slithered into a childcare center in Australia.
A snake measuring around 15 inches in length was found on the two-year-old at the childcare center—located in the coastal town of Bowen, Queensland state—on Tuesday, local media outlet the Townsville Bulletin reported.
After the snake was found on the two-year-old, paramedics arrived at the childcare center and examined the child due to fears that they had been bitten.
Australia is home to roughly 170 species of snake, of which about 100 are venomous, although it is thought that only around a dozen of these are capable of inflicting a bite that is highly dangerous to humans, according to the government of New South Wales—a state located in the southeast of the country.
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Snakes are not usually aggressive and will usually only attack humans if they feel threatened or are provoked.
Paramedics who arrived at the childcare center in Bowen said the snake which had found its way inside the facility was brown in color and venomous but it is not clear what species it belonged to.
The child was not displaying any symptoms of possible envenomation but they did have marks that appeared to have been caused by a snake bite on their hand.
Paramedics took the child to a local hospital as a precaution where they were reportedly in a stable condition.
The toddler was released from the hospital on Wednesday, officials from the medical center told 7news.com.au.
While the species of snake found on the child has not been identified, there is a group of venomous serpents native to Australia that tend to be brown in coloration.
This genus, or group of species, is called Pseudonaja—commonly referred to as brown snakes—which are considered to have among the most powerful venoms in the world. Some of the nine brown snake species are capable of delivering a bite that can be fatal to humans.
One brown snake species that has a particularly potent venom is the eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis), which is found across the eastern half of Australia—often in populated areas.
The eastern brown, which can reach almost eight feet in length, is considered by some measures to have the second most toxic venom of any land snake in the world, data from the University of Melbourne’s Australian Venom Research Unit shows.
Their venom contains a host of different toxins that can stop blood from clotting and cause paralysis. Deaths resulting from an eastern brown snake bite are usually caused by cardiac arrest or bleeding in the brain.
Brown snakes as a group were responsible for more deaths in Australia between 2000 and 2016 than any other snake, although fatalities resulting from their bites are rare with 23 recorded in this period, figures from a study published in the journal Toxicon show.
When juvenile eastern brown snakes hatch, they measure around 6 inches in length. But despite their smaller size, they are just as venomous as the adults.
In some instances, a venomous snake can bite while not releasing any venom. These are known as “dry” bites and tend to be less dangerous, although they may still cause pain and other symptoms, such as bleeding and inflammation.
The frequency of dry bites varies widely depending on the species, but research indicates that in the case of the eastern brown, they may make up around 80 percent of all bites.
Earlier this month, an eastern brown snake was found in the hallway of a childcare center in Brisbane—a large city located on the Queensland coast.
