Snake man once bitten, but not shy
THE fangs of a death adder were the first to puncture snake whisperer Adrian Walker's skin - so it is little wonder he calls python bites "light kisses".
The adder was being milked as part of a show at Cairns’ Hartley’s Creek Crocodile Farm almost four decades ago.
"I lost my grip and it bit me between the thumb and forefinger," Mr Walker said yesterday.
"Luckily, most of its venom was already in my jar."
The experience was just as memorable for uncovering Mr Walker’s allergy to antivenene, a condition that kept him on a heart and lung machine for several days but, did not deter him from a career in snake handling.
The 58-year-old has survived half a dozen bites since, during dealings with more than 20,000 slithery reptiles.
He doesn’t count bites from non-lethal snakes.
"There’s been pythons and brown tree snake (bites) too but they’re more like light (snake) kisses," a smiling Mr Walker told The Weekend Post.
"If anything it (allergy) gives me focus.
"It makes me a little more respectful and cautious."
The Mission Beach handler’s love affair with snakes started as the son of a zoologist who liked heading bush in country Victoria to learn more about wildlife.
Mr Walker still remembers the first time he nervously held a snake, when he was a 12-year-old on a hike with his Dad. It was a red-bellied black snake, and from there he handled copperheads and tiger snakes under his father’s supervision.
His encounters have been captured in The Diary of a Snake Whisperer, which will hit bookstore shelves in coming weeks.
Among his stories are times shared with renowned naturalist and In the Wild television presenter Harry Butler and the day a highly venomous 1.5m eastern brown snake took over a home at Mission Beach and needed to be removed with the help of a Balinese wall hanging.
Mr Walker said people needed to have a healthy respect for snakes.
"Sometimes the levels of fear can be irrational but people are right to be cautious … snakes sense if someone is afraid or not and I find that when they’re not sensing fear, when I can talk with them quietly, there is calm mutual respect," he said.
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Fangs for the memories: Mission Beach snake whisperer Adrian Walker has dedicated his life to snake handling after being bitten by a death adder. The tales from his long career will soon be released in a book. Picture: JULIE LIGHTFOOT
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