They're responsible for the most deaths across the world for any venomous snake.
One of the deadliest snakes in the world has been found for the first time in Ireland - in a family's garden in Co. Offaly.
9-year-old Fionn Kilmurray discovered the saw-scaled viper in Rhode yesterday, with his family later trapping it in a bucket and alerting animal welfare officers.
The snake had been hiding in a crate of paving stone that had been arrived from India last week and is usually found in desert regions in Iran.
His mother, Aoife, told RTÉ News that Fionn was acting "cool as a cucumber" when he came into the house and told her he had found a snake in their back garden.
However, neither of them aware of just how dangerous the reptile really was.
James Hennessy, Director of the National Reptile Zoo, says he was shocked when he saw what had been crawling around the garden:
''I looked at it and I thought oh dear, that's not your standard pet snake, he said.
''It's a soft tailed poisonous, they're actually responsible for the most deaths across the world for any venomous snake.''
