Man is Savagely Attacked While Taking a Photo of a Python
A man was brutally attacked by a snake after he got too close to it while trying to take a photograph.
Joey Zayne was left covered in blood after the python bit him on the head while he was out on a walk in Queensland, Australia.After getting an up-close photo of the snake, Zayne was lunged at and bitten by the defensive python, which left fang marks on the side of his skull.
The Australian got a selfie of himself afterward showing the shocking amount of blood the snake had drawn.
“I didn’t see it coming. It was crazy,” Zayne explains. “I had no idea that it was that close to my face and then I started bleeding profusely.”
Zayne says that he was on the Behana Gorge trail when a couple pointed out that the large reptile was in a tree above which caught his attention.
“I was at a waterfall and we were walking back up and there was a couple in front of us, they pointed out a snake above us so, we stopped and had a look,” he says
“I saw it and took some photos. Then when I went back down to grab a couple of bottles I dropped.”
After Zayne returned from clearing up his garbage, he says he approached the snake again to take more photos but that’s when it struck him.
“Everyone’s saying all these comments ‘You harassed the snake’, but I didn’t do a Steve Irwin,” he says. “I was calm and casual like I always am with the snakes — and it decided to go me.”
Snakes are Best Left Alone
David Walton, a snake removal expert, says that snakes won’t usually attack unless given a good reason to.
“If you see a snake, you know, just give him a wide berth,” Walton tells 7 News.
“Snakes do not attack or bite for no reason. They have to really feel the need to give a defensive response in a vulnerable situation.”
While pythons are powerful snakes they are not venomous, unlike other serpent species in Australia. But as Zayne found out, they can still leave their mark.
In 2019, Ronald Zimmerman wrote a guide for PetaPixel on how to photograph reptiles safely.
Image credits: All photos by Compass Media/Joey Zayne
