Robert F Kennedy Jr grabs writhing snakes on a Florida patio

A video has gone viral of US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr picking up a pair of writhing snakes with his bare hands - but wildlife officials caution: don't try this at home.

Kennedy wrote in a caption for the clip that he was removing the reptiles from his colleague Dr Mehmet Oz's Florida beach house.

"Cheryl cheerleads the removal of a pair of Black Racers from Dr Oz's patio," Kennedy posted, in an apparent reference to his wife, actress Cheryl Hines. A woman in the footage can be heard saying: "Why?"

Black racers "are non-venomous and harmless to humans as long as they are left alone", according to the National Park Service.

The video posted by Kennedy on Tuesday shows him wearing a shirt, trousers, socks and no shoes as he approaches the slithering snakes and crouches to grab them.

A woman can be heard saying: "Bobby, please." His host, Dr Oz, leads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is part of the health department led by Kennedy.

Kennedy holds up the snakes for the camera, smiling even as they appear to bite him.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently warned people to stay away from snakes as they become more active in the spring.

"Give snakes a wide berth and admire them from a distance," the agency said in a Facebook post.

"Resist the urge to pick it up - even our nonvenomous snakes can give a solid bite," it added.

It is the latest episode of RFK Jr's hands-on encounters with the animal kingdom.

In April he was asked on Capitol Hill about reports that he cut off a road-killed raccoon's penis.

Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, asked Kennedy during the hearing: "I was reading an article this morning that talked about your affinity to perform your own medical research.

"You apparently once cut the penis off a road-killed raccoon to study them later."

Kennedy also faced scrutiny two years ago from environmentalists over a claim that he once decapitated a dead beached whale with a chainsaw to take it home on the roof of his vehicle.