A toilet “snake” call in Israel turned into a very different kind of rescue this week, highlighting how wild animals can end up in some of the most unexpected corners of human homes.
What happened?
With reptiles waking up after winter, snake catchers in Israel have recently been handling more reports of animals appearing around homes, Ynet reported.
The outlet revealed one of those calls came from Maccabim, in the city of Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, where the person seeking help believed a snake was stuck inside a toilet.
Snake catcher Eran Ben Basat described the frantic message he received.
“A woman called me and said, ‘Listen, my cleaning lady opened the toilet, saw a snake and screamed,'” he recalled to Ynet. “‘We immediately closed the lid and put something on top of it so it couldn’t get out.'”
About 15 minutes later, when he reached the home, he found that the animal had been mistaken for a snake.
“In the end, it wasn’t a snake,” he explained to Ynet. “It was a legless lizard called a forest glass lizard.”
Why does it matter?
Even though this case ended without danger, it illustrates how human-built systems can create strange and stressful encounters between people and wildlife.
Ben Basat suggested to Ynet that this kind of incident is very rare in Israel. When it does happen, an animal may have entered the sewer system through an outdoor access point and then kept moving through the passageways because it could not find its way back out.
A reptile in the toilet is an obvious shock and a potential safety concern, especially in places where venomous snakes are present. Confusion inside pipes or other enclosed spaces can become dangerous, particularly if frightened homeowners try to handle it themselves.
What can I do?
Ben Basat also offered Ynet practical advice that could help prevent similar surprises.
“It mostly happens in single-family homes where there is an open sewer cover or some other access point to the sewer system outside the house,” he explained to the outlet. “They get in but don’t know how to get back out, so they keep looking for an exit and eventually emerge through the toilet.”
One way to lower the odds of this happening is to inspect yards and exterior utility areas for damaged or uncovered sewer access points before reptiles can get into the plumbing, Ben Basat suggested to Ynet.
Rather than trying to grab or kill a snake or snake-like animal found inside the house, it is safer to back away and call a local snake catcher or wildlife professional. Misidentifying an animal can put both you and the animal at greater risk.
Ben Basat stressed that snakes aren’t looking to hurt humans.
“I can assure everyone that there is no snake in the world that will voluntarily approach or chase a person,” he asserted to Ynet. “Snakes are at least as afraid of people as people are of them.”
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