Swimmers, tourists and locals visiting Lake Zurich have been taken by surprise lately, as a growing number of snakes have been spotted in and around the area. Thankfully, the snakes are unlikely to be poisonous.
Concerned residents of Zurich should not worry about the snakes being deadly - according to Swiss news outlet Watson, they are highly unlikely to be venomous. This is because only two types of venomous snake can be found naturally in Switzerland - the adder and the asp viper - and they are mainly found in the Eastern Alps, and Western and Southern Switzerland.
According to the news outlet, the majority of the snakes found around the Swiss lake are dice snakes. These snakes can grow up to 140 centimetres long and can hiss loudly and puff themselves up when feeling threatened.
Thankfully, despite their intimidating behaviour, the dice snake is not deadly. Even if you get a little too close to dice snakes, they do not usually bite humans. The other snake that is native to the region is the grass snake, which is also harmless to humans.
The reason for the increased population of snakes in the area is likely due to their prominence on the Zurich food chain. Since the snakes don’t really have any competition in terms of predators, and have access to relatively large amounts of prey, they have been able to multiply along the banks of the lake relatively unhindered - interestingly, dice snakes can also swim through water and stay submerged for 25 minutes, so you could even spot them in the lake itself!
There is just one warning from experts about spotting the creatures - even though they are harmless to humans, try to avoid touching the snakes unless they are in danger of being hurt or getting stuck as it can send the snakes into a state of shock.