Australia's foremost snake expert Raymond Hoser has been been criss-crossing Australia training potential reptile handlers in anticipation of a busy Australian summer for snake catching work.
Reports of a busy early snake season in all parts of Australia has seen snake catchers run off their feet removing dangerously venomous snakes from people's homes, businesses and even motor cars.
Some snake catchers have been doing up to 20 call outs a day and at an average of $200 a time, they have been earning up to $2,000 a day!
The downside is that at times people are waiting hours to have a dangerous snake removed and worse still, the snake is more likely to evade capture the longer the delay in a snake handler arriving at the scene.
To combat this problem, Australia's first licensed snake catcher and foremost snake expert, Raymond Hoser has been busily criss-crossing Australia to teach others the essential skills to catch and handle dangerous snakes safely.
To date, Hoser has taught many thousands of people safety with reptiles and there are now trained snake controllers across Australia.
However there remains significant unmet demand for snake catchers in many parts of Australia, including much of Queensland, including Brisbane and the Gold Coast, parts of Sydney and Melbourne and also a number of regional centres.
Hoser has been particularly busy training people following a recent spike in fatal and near fatal snakebites arising from improperly trained people catching snakes.
Hoser said "These people should not be allowed near snakes and to do so, puts both them and the snakes at risk".
In the 1970's Raymond Hoser became the first government-licensed snake catcher on the planet, being licensed to remove dangerous snakes from residential properties. Before then, people either killed the snakes, the snakes killed the people or one or other parted ways.
Raymond Hoser, who later published nine major books about reptiles, wildlife conservation and similar matters, has since turned public opinion away from killing snakes and recognizing their conservation potential.
However Hoser says, "much needs to be done and there are many people out there who seek to undue the important work done so far".
As the only 24/7 licensed snake catcher in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Raymond Hoser catches hundreds of deadly snakes each year and is the only person in history with the skill to be able to hold 20 deadly snakes at once and survive to tell the tale.
He is also the world's foremost reptile expert, having discovered and named over 100 species of snake, including the world's longest, 2 species of Cobra, three rattlesnakes, about 20 other vipers, 3 King Brown Snakes, several Death Adders, pythons, boas, blind snakes, file snakes, tree snakes and others, as well as over 100 species of lizard, turtles, etc, being more species discovered than by any other person born in the last 150 years.
In the face of having worked with deadly snakes from all parts of the world, at age 56, Snakeman Hoser retains an unmatched perfect safety record.
Hoser says being bitten by deadly snakes is not an occupational hazard of handling snakes, but rather a direct result of not being trained properly. For more information see:
Snake Handling Courses
or phone:
(within Australia) 0412-777-211