http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/aussie-mom-finds-python-coiling-2-year-old-daughter-biting-hand-article-1.1234713#ixzz2HInAKULc

quote]What a sneaky snake! Aussie mom finds python coiling around 2-year-old daughter in bed, biting her hand 3 times
The nonvenomous snake was later captured. A reptile expert said the python was just trying to have a 'group hug' and likely wasn't trying to kill the girl.
By Erik Ortiz / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, January 7, 2013, 8:16 AM



An Australian mom says she woke up to a real-life nightmare: a python gripping her 2-year-old daughter’s arms and sinking its fangs into the girl’s hand.

Tess Guthrie, 22, said she was sleeping with daughter Zara in bed Saturday when she awoke to the sound of her cat hissing around 3:30 a.m.

Something was writhing in the bed, she said, so she reached for her cell phone to illuminate it.

“Automatically, I jumped,” she told the Brisbane Times. “I don’t know if my movement startled the snake, but that’s when it started to constrict around (Zara's) arm and then it just started to strike at her, and it got her three times.”

Guthrie, who lives in the subtropical town of Lismore, south of Brisbane, told the newspaper her adrenaline kicked in as she feared for her daughter’s life.

“My thought was it was going to kill her,” she said, adding, “I sort of pulled them apart. I think I threw the snake on the bed and just ran.”

Guthrie took her daughter to the hospital, where she was discharged that same morning and later showed off her injury to local media. The snake is nonvenomous and kills by constriction.

“Did it really happen or was it some crazy dream?” asked the dazed mom.

A snake expert was called in to remove the reptile, which was found slithering behind the bed. The creature was described as a carpet python, which grow to more than 6 feet long and feast on small mammals.

This particular python measured nearly 10 feet.

“The snake, not in any way, shape or form, had intended to eat the baby — it was trying to have a group hug,” Tex Tillis, who extracted the snake, told The Daily Telegraph.

“Pythons, underneath their bottom jaw they have a row of sensors which enable them to see the world in terms of infrared pictures,” Tillis added. “So in the dark, they’re going to see a baby as this warm spot.”

While the snake failed to seriously hurt her daughter, Guthrie decided she didn’t want the creature killed, and asked for it to be released more than 3 miles away from her home.

“Not only is she courageous and gutsy," Tillis said of the mom, "but she's compassionate."
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Hopefully it won't find its way back!

Australia on the whole has some nasty ass wild life. I'm glad the little girl will be OK (for the most part) but I'm also glad they didn't just kill the snake.

Alan Smithee wrote:

Australia on the whole has some nasty ass wild life. I'm glad the little girl will be OK (for the most part) but I'm also glad they didn't just kill the snake.

hopefully the baby is young enough to not be traumatized by the incident