Family Discovers 'Deadly' Snake Hiding Under Child's Toy on Christmas

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Reptile catcher Mark Pelley answered the call about the tiger snake and removed the reptile without injury

A creature was stirring on Christmas night for one Australian family: a venomous tiger snake.

In a video posted to Facebook by The Snake Hunter — which describes itself as a 24/7 emergency snake handling service based in the suburbs of Melbourne — the cameraman picks up a baby's bouncer to reveal a tiger snake, tongue flicking, hidden underneath.

'It's Christmas night, and all is quiet in this house — except for a tiger snake, which was sitting underneath a child's bouncer!" he narrates in the video.

The tiger snake is one of Australia's "most notorious" venomous snake species, according to a report by the University of Melbourne's School of Biomedical Sciences. Though tiger snakes are "not aggressive," the report notes, they will bite humans when interfered with — and their bites are often "life-threatening" for humans.

"Even though it's small, it's still incredibly deadly because they hide in the most unique places inside the home," said the video's narrator.

Related: Texas Woman Bit by a Snake While Sitting on the Toilet — but It Didn't Stop Her From Going to Church Hours Later

According to Yahoo News Australia, reptile catcher Mark Pelley responded to the call about the scaly intruder, which came in at 11:30 p.m. on Christmas night.

"The first thing I lifted was the child's baby bouncer, and I found the tiger snake underneath it," he told the outlet. "The snake could have been there for a lot longer, and it could have been crawling around the baby's toys, but they just didn't notice it. It was a real Christmas Day surprise."

Last week, another Australian family had a close call with the dangerous snake breed when a tiger snake was curled up in the wardrobe of a home in Tasmania, according to Yahoo News Australia. A snake catcher also responded to that call, and nobody was injured.

Related: Man Returns Home to Find 'Highly Venomous' Snake Resting Underneath His Bedroom Pillow

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Despite the recent run-ins, the University of Melbourne's report notes that the number of tiger snakes — which used to be the species responsible for the most human snakebite injuries in Australia — has dropped throughout the country in recent years because of human modification of the environment. Now, eastern brown snakes are responsible for the most bites of any snake species.