Your trusted source

A 17-month-old Brazilian boy fatally bit a killer snake after it approached him while he was playing in the back garden of his home, according to stuff.co.nz.

The boy, named Lorenzo, was discovered by his mother Jaine Ferreira in the concreted play area, covered in blood, Radio Gaucha reported.

The animal was clamped tight in his mouth, struggling to get loose.

Ferreira said the toddler refused to let go of the snake, treating it as if it were one of his toys.

Lorenzo's parents forced the child's mouth open then rushed him to Sao Luiz Hospital, afraid that he had been bitten by the animal.
But the medics discovered Lorenzo was unharmed. The blood in his mouth and on his hands belonged to the snake, drawn as the toddler chomped into it.

The dead snake was identified as the jararaca pit viper - it's bite can cause brain haemorrhage, kidney failure and fatal shock.
"He bit the young jararaca close to its head, which immobilized it and prevented it from biting him," Gilmar Carteri, a doctor at the hospital, told G1 news.

"The boy was very shaken up - I think it was a self-defence instinct that kicked in, or he thought it was a toy."

The jararara is native to southern Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.