It came as a surprise to Australian custom officials when they found more than a dozen snakes and lizards stuffed inside garden gnomes and similar pottery during a recent international mail check. Since it is illegal to bring live reptiles into Australia without a license, some people use this method to ship reptiles. One of the customs officials found two snakes and three lizards inside ceramic garden statues during a routine postal inspection in Sydney on June 10.

A man who illegally raised an alligator in a Buffalo, NY, basement contacted the state Department of Environmental Conservation to say he could no longer take care of his 8-foot, 170-pound pet. Now the gator is moving to an animal sanctuary in Tampa, FL, where it can live among other large reptiles. Although it is illegal to keep an alligator in New York state, the man who housed the gator in his basement won't be facing any charges because he turned himself in, officials said.

Maybe the passenger with 700 snakes in his carry-on bag hadn't seen the movie "Snakes on a Plane," before he tried to board a flight from Egypt to Saudi Arabia on Thursday. Authorities only discovered the snakes after airline staff asked him to open his bag before he boarded the flight. The man complied with the request, but warned the airport employee not to get too close. Inside the bag were 700 writhing snakes, including two deadly cobras.

A Chesterton, Indiana, man is facing charges for possessing a venomous snake after his own pet Western Diamondback rattlesnake bit him on the finger. Robert Urbanski's snake bit him while he was handling it, and he was rescued by police and rescue personnel and taken to a hospital and then airlifted to the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. He could now be charged with illegal possession of poisonous snakes.

A man from the Indian state of Chennai is bidding for a place in the Guinness Book Of World Records by inserting live snakes into his nostrils and then pulling them out of his mouth. Manoharan, who goes by the name "Snake Manu," has reportedly been performing the feat for quite a few years. According to a local journal, Manoharan threads two tree snakes - several inches long and as thick as a finger - through his nostrils and opens his mouth wide to pull them out.