BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE (Texas) 31 December 13 Gator Country says goodbye to Banana, beloved Burmese python (Sarah Moore)

A Beaumont celebrity who acted as an ambassador of sorts for the reptile kingdom has died.

Banana, a 16-foot albino Burmese python who made the news in 2012 when she was kidnapped and then when she was found several months later, was found dead in her indoor enclosure in Gator Country about three weeks ago, said owner Gary Saurage.

She was buried at Gator Country, Saurage said.

As to cause of death, he said he believes it was simply her time to go.

Although she did not display any other symptoms of illness, she had stopped eating in the past two months.

Many who visited Gator Country over the years will mourn the loss of the popular snake, a star attraction at the reptile theme park.

Saurage estimated the park draws about 30,000 visitors per year, and "she was a huge hit to everyone."

"Everybody that knows Big Al (Gator Country's star alligator) knows Banana, and that's a lot of folks," he said.

Banana was a star attraction of school field trips, which traditionally featured a photo opp with the docile, bright yellow snake.

Roughly 24,000 Southeast Texas school children posed in one of those group photos over the past six years, by Saurage's estimate.

Banana came to live at Gator Country in 2007 after she was found roaming loose in an abandoned Houston apartment complex. She was about 12 feet long at that time and in good shape.
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