Around Perth and the Southwest at around 25 cm in length these "brown" snakes are still potentially very dangerous, so catch with care. One guy on my most recent snake handling course said they had 5 sightings in the one day at his workplace.

At the other end of the scale a relocator caught and successfully relocated a 2-metre dugite from the toilet block at a holiday camp near Hillarys Boat Harbour. It had been busy eating a large King skink at the time.

Any groups or schools in Western Australia that are interested in presentations in their home town about the Gnaraloo conservation work, please contact Colleen Mason on (08) 9942 5927 to make a booking (being offered from 3 March - 30 April 2015).

There is no cost associated with this as the Gnaraloo Station Trust provides this educational service free of charge.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31359188

We are losing species at world record-breaking speeds. In just over 200 years we have lost forever (extinct) 11% of native mammals with a further 21% threatened with extinction.

With cats and foxes the major cause I think we need a radical rethink on our pet keeping laws. Ban or severely restrict the keeping of cats or at least enforce a no wander ruling, so cat 'runs' on a property are mandatory.

Even pet cats hunt and kill whenever they can. We should allow and encourage the keeping of natives as pets, Quolls, Quokkas and Woylies spring to mind as potentially suitable, easy to breed species but rare in the wild.

I wrangled snakes, lizards and bugs with Alex at our two separate shoots last year. I really must call her again and do the same with some birds and mammals.

Alex is easy to work with and always delivers great images.

At this time of year we get many calls from people with snakes in houses and gardens. I was out early this morning and caught a 60cm+ dugite from a house in Kingsley. It was up high on a computer table, I didn’t see it at first it was so dark it looked like a cable. To the right is a picture of her neighbour’s back yard, a haven for snakes!

It can be a bit of a hassle with scared people pleading for your help, and you don’t always get to catch anything and if you are a beginner it takes some experience to find and safely catch them, they can be real fast and amazing at eluding capture.

But if you are thinking about it do call or email. If it’s the cost of snake catching equipment holding you back just call - I will give you a good discount.

Thanks for the picture.

Early settlers thought them 'deaf' as unlike most other snakes they did not move out of the way when approached. This is due to their using cryptic colouration (camouflage) to avoid detection and ambush style hunting methods. A Death Adder buries itself in sand or leaf litter and waits. The snake has a tail with a strange spiky last scale, and when prey is spotted it wriggles this around and lures in a curious mouse, bird or lizard which is then caught by the snake’s lightning fast strike.

Death Adders have a vast range and can be found in various habitats including rocky outcrops, rainforest, dry forest scrub and desert. They occur widely across Australia and New Guinea, but are absent from Tasmania and parts of Victoria. Southern Death Adders, despite their common name, occur from Northern Queensland through parts of NSW/ACT and Southern WA.

In late summer up to 30 live young are born although litter sizes of 12-15 would be considered more usual.