BRASILIA, Nov. 2 -- A year-and-five-month-old baby miraculously survived after biting a poisonous snake to death in southern Brazil, media reported Monday.

The incident occurred Sunday afternoon as the boy was playing outside his home in Mostardas, a city in Brazil's southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, according to his mother Jaine Ferreira, news agency EFE reported.

Ferreira told local radio Gaucha that she found him with a wriggling snake in his mouth when she went to check on him. The boy had clamped the snake down, preventing it from being able to bite back.

The boy was immediately taken to the hospital, where doctors confirmed he had no injuries or symptoms of being poisoned.

The snake was identified as a Bothrops jararaca, a pit viper endemic to South America whose bite carries a fatality rate of 70 percent if left untreated.