Terrifying find

A snake was lolling around in the bicycle trailer

The snake was caught and later released back into the wild

(Bild: Esterbauer)

Shock for a young woman in Haidershofen (Upper Austria): When she went to fetch her dog carrier from the storage room of her home, she was unexpectedly confronted by a lambent reptile. The 35-year-old had two similarly unpleasant encounters three years ago.

When Jasmin H. recently entered the drying and storage room of her apartment building in Haidershofen (Lower Austria), she could hardly believe her eyes. A snake was lolling around in the bicycle trailer she had parked there to transport her dogs "Yule" and "Dina".

Jasmin H. wanted to transport her dogs in this bicycle trailer and came across the snake.

(Bild: zVg)

"It really scared me," says the 35-year-old. To prevent the uninvited visitor from escaping again, the woman had the presence of mind to immediately close the cover of the transport trailer. She then asked snake expert Hans Esterbauer from Steyr for help.

"I was on site around 20 minutes later," confirms Esterbauer. He already knew the location from a mission three years ago. "That was in October 2021 - also in the drying room. Back then, Ms H. encountered a smooth snake, which I caught and removed," says the snake expert.

Hans Esterbauer caught the young Aesculapian snake with his bare hands and put it in a jute sack

(Bild: zVg)

Esterbauer opened the cover of the dog trailer and recognized a young, non-poisonous Aesculapian snake that had apparently sought winter quarters there. The animal had probably entered through a tilted window.

The striking expert caught the snake and released it back into the wild. "As it didn't behave aggressively towards me, I immediately grabbed it with my bare hands and stowed it in a jute sack." The reptile was later released unharmed in a biotope in Steyr.