A common tree snake took a "leap of faith" from one tree into another after a school groundskeeper tried to move it on.
The moment was captured on video by staff at a Queensland school earlier this week, and shared to Facebook by Sunshine Coast Snake Catcher 24/7.
The short clip shows the small snake leaping from a tree into another nearby, to the screams of children looking on.
Snake catcher Lockie Gilding said the snake would have felt it had no other choice but to flee by any means necessary.
"The tree snake was scared, it felt like it had nowhere to go, obviously the shrub it was in wasn't giving it enough cover, so it felt the best way to go about it was to jump out of the tree and do its best to get up another tree and get away," Mr Gilding said.
"It's not overly common, but I wouldn't say it's rare. If a snake feels like it's got nowhere to go, no matter what species it is, it's going to try anything to get away from a predator."
Mr Gilding said the snake could not be spotted following its daring escape.
"I'm pretty sure he jumped, everyone freaked out, and he made his getaway," Mr Gilding said.
"That was obviously his best option … to take that leap of faith."
Mr Gilding said there were two options for those who come across a tree snake on their property — leave it alone, or call a snake catcher.
"You can leave it alone and let it go on its own. Tree snakes are completely harmless, they very rarely bite, they have no venom, so they're absolutely no threat to us," he said.
"If you give them time and space they'll go on their own way without a doubt, they're not ones for hanging around especially after they've been spotted. They're pretty shy little things and happy to go on their own way.
"If you did want them moved on, then call a snake catcher. If you do it yourself, as you see in the video, it never really goes that well."
The thought of "jumping snakes" did not sit well with some who saw the video on social media.
"Has my skin crawling, I've never seen anything like that," Pearl wrote on Twitter.
