Mystery over whether snake really stole sausage straight from a barbecue

Australian snake catcher Geoff Delooze has seen some things in his time, but never a snake with a sausage.

So when a friend mentioned an eastern brown snake crashing a barbecue and stealing a sausage, he didn’t quite believe him. Then he saw the photo.



‘‘This brown snake apparently came bolting out, took the sausage in front of a group of people, and disappeared back into the bush,’’ says Geoff, from Native and Feral Pest Management. ‘‘It was like it had done it before.’’

The barbecue was held at the foot of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, where campers might expect the odd brush with a snake. Geoff says the photo came from a friend of a friend. However, an expert from the Office of Environment has his doubts. He thinks the snake might have been dead and set up for the shot.