A boy steps within inches of a deadly eastern brown snake.
Two kids skip by a deadly snake lying in the dirt road.

A brother and sister skipping hand-in-hand down a dirt road in Australia where oblivious to the deadly snake lying in their path, and so was their mother following behind them.

The boy eventually stepped just inches from a large eastern brown snake, an extremely venomous snake which is responsible for more human deaths in Australia than any other species.

Fortunately, the snake remained still as the children passed. The mother also walked by the eastern brown snake without incident.

It was only later when reviewing the photos she took that the mother realized the danger they luckily avoided.

The encounter occurred in Eskdale, located in northeast Victoria. It happened in 2019, but Snake Catcher Victoria Australia reposted the images last week as a reminder for people to remain alert while in the wild.

“Generally speaking, they’ll move off when they see you coming, but this one obviously wasn’t too worried about it,” Barry Goldsmith of Snake Catcher Victoria Australia told Yahoo News Australia.

“Snakes don’t attack people; no one has ever been attacked by a snake. The snake’s always defending itself.

“They’re not really aggressive animals. All they’ve got is an instinct to fight or flight, so they don’t want to have anything to do with us.

“They’re certainly not going to lie on the grass and wait for us to walk past and then jump out and bite us for no reason.”

Goldsmith also told Yahoo News Australia that wearing long pants acts as an extra layer of protection when hiking in the bush.

“Ideally, the proper footwear and long pants is a good idea,” he said. “And educating the kids to look around.”

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Can you spot the deadly snake lurking ahead? These kids didn’t

Reporting by David Strege, For The Win / For The Win

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