Slithering surprise: Australian woman finds snake on her Christmas tree

It probably wasn’t what she asked Santa for, but a woman in Australia got an early Christmas surprise in her tree this year.

According to professional snake catcher Barry Goldsmith, a woman in Melbourne found a tiger snake intertwined with the tinsel on her Christmas tree on Sunday morning.

“She’s didn’t panic, she just took a photo and sent it to the snake catcher, me, and 20 minutes later I had the little bugger in a bag,” Goldsmith wrote on Facebook with a photo of the holiday reptile.

The snake was about 3 feet long, Goldsmith, who runs Snake Catcher Victoria Australia, told Fox News. He said he released the snake back to the wild after capturing it.

Goldsmith also told the Guardian that the woman did the right thing by taking a photo and then closing off the room until professionals arrived.

He said with warm weather, snakes are more active, but people should leave them alone and not try to kill them.

“It’s dangerous, it’s illegal and it’s cruel,” he added.

Of the tiger snake found in the tree, Goldsmith said this species of the slithering reptile are “very good climbers” and that while a Christmas tree is unusual, they “find them in all sorts of places.”

According to the Australian Reptile Park, the tiger snake is a highly venemous repitle found in many parts of southern Australia.

Tiger snake bites used to be the most common cause of snake bite fatalities in Australia.