A woman has been rushed to hospital when an eastern brown snake became entangled in her bike chain and bit her on the thigh.
The woman was riding along the Northern Rivers Rail Trail near Burringbar, about 33km northwest of Byron Bay, when she ran over a 2m eastern brown snake about 1pm on Wednesday.
NSW Ambulance rushed to the scene and transported the woman to the Tweed Valley Hospital.
The Tweed Valley Wildlife Carers phoned venomous snake rescuer Sarah Mailey from I’ll Catch It Snake Relocations to help remove one of the world’s most venomous snakes from the bike.
Ms Mailey met police who escorted her to the bike where she saw the injured snake tangled up in the chain.
“I believe (the woman) rode over the snake, and the snake, as it got hit sort of flung up and got caught in a chain and bit her,” Ms Mailey said.
Police and bystanders assisted the snake rescuer so she could untangle the highly venomous snake from the bike chain.
“Once they could help me untangle it I had to contain the snake, put it in a bag, take it away, and unfortunately euthanise it due to the extent of the injuries,” she said.
“It wasn’t a difficult one, it was more just dangerous because I had to contain the head, I couldn’t exactly untangle the snake.
“If it wasn’t for the members of the public and the police being brave enough to assist, I would have had to hold the snake and wait for someone else to come and assist.”
Ms Mailey said while snakes slowed down during winter, it was not uncommon for them to be moving around.
She said they found a space to spend winter in April and May then stayed there unless it warmed up during winter.
“If it warms up enough it gives them a false sense of security that it’s warm outside so they’ll bring themselves out,” she said.
“They might stay out for half an hour, and they might go a couple of meters just trying to temperature regulate.
“Once they realise they’re not getting that warmth that they need, they just go straight back into their chosen spot, and then they stay there until August, September.”
She said unfortunately in this incident the snake was run over by accident and it was probably sitting close to the side of the track.
“They’ll curl up and won’t move a muscle, from a distance it could definitely be mistaken for a tree or a branch or a leaf or even a shadow,” she said.
The snake rescuer advised people going out on trails or bushwalking to take a compression bandage and know snake bite first aid in case they or someone else are bitten.
“Eastern browns are definitely are one of the snakes that do cause the most bites, I don’t believe that they’re an aggressive species, I just believe that they’re defensive when they’re feeling threatened,” she said.