Reptile & Amphibian Forums

THE TRENTONIAN (Trenton, New Jersey) 19 June 07 Sunbathing snake on the lam (Artemis Coughlan)
Bristol, Pa.: A 10-foot black python that has been terrorizing a township neighborhood was spotted sunbathing in a Bath Street backyard yesterday morning but was gone by the time animal wardens showed up.
The woman who called in the sighting at 7:30 a.m. grabbed her infant child and fled her home in fear that it would eat her baby, said neighbor Duanne Duchossois.
Bristol Township Animal Control Officer Bill Kurko said a similar snake squeezed an 8-year-old girl to death a few years ago in Pittsburgh.
The constrictor with a diamond pattern on its back has been spotted several times since last week, when the headless body of a stray cat was found under a house where the snake was slithering.
In addition to the hapless cat's head, the big python is believed to have eaten four kittens from a litter of seven under the house. Despite a full-on stakeout, the snake eluded officers.
"It's out there a block away from where we were looking," Kurko said."It has moved. We were using a live groundhog as bait to lure the snake into a trap. It was the perfect conditions. The neighbors are really concerned now.
"It's starting to act like a snake now and has come out to bathe in the sun. It could be almost anywhere. It could be in a tree because it eats birds, eggs and squirrels. They're excellent predators. The heat is on. Believe me, we're going to get this snake."
"There were police and animal control people all over here this morning. It was very scary," said neighbor Lisa Dunis. "It was gray and between 10 to 14 feet long and very, very fat, one of my neighbors said."
"People from Swain Street behind us were using flashlights and were chasing the snake last night in our direction," Duchossois said. "My cat sensed there's a predator around yesterday. He never goes into attic and yesterday he sensed danger and went into my attic."
Kurko said he almost got the snake last week when officers put a dead pidgeon in a trap. The snake slithered in, took a bite of the bird and slithered back out because it was too long for the trap as the door never completely closed.
Sunbathing snake on the lam

BUCKS COUNTY COURIER TIMES (Levittown, Pennsylvania) 22 June 07 Snake catcher on his way to Bristol (Ben Finley)
If you see the snake, "remain quiet and still," Bristol’s manager advised residents in a letter.
"Do not put trash out during night time hours."
"Keep pets indoors at night."
On Monday morning, a resident of the 500 block of Bath Street told officials he saw the familiar and famous reptile. The car-long, football-thick snake was spotted scaling a wooden fence behind a house.
The snake’s dark body reportedly boasted a handsome-sized lump. Perhaps the extra girth was one of four kittens missing from the 600 block of Bath Street, where the snake was first spotted last week.
The man ran inside to grab a chair leg to kill the snake but it had disappeared when he came back outside, officials said.
The animal has so far eluded live pigeon and live woodchuck-baited traps, all-night stakeouts and underground cameras. This time, the borough means business. On Friday, it hired a Texas company referred by the Philadelphia Zoo.
Bristol is paying for the firm’s snake catcher to travel by car from Illinois, council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said. But taxpayers are getting a deal on his accommodations because he was already headed to this area to catch another snake.
"He wouldn’t disclose where," DiGuiseppe said.
The snake catcher, who will earn an hourly wage for his efforts, hasn’t guaranteed the borough a new pair of snakeskin boots, DiGuiseppe said.
But, he said, "We have to do whatever we have to do as a borough. God forbid a kid gets bit. They say this thing is 13 feet long and 8 inches wide."
DiGuiseppe knows this because animal control officers laid powder on the ground this week to track the snake’s slithering.
The reptile has been drinking out of baby pools and ground-level birdbaths, Bristol Township animal control officer William Kurko said.
Before this week’s sighting, Kurko said, he was beginning to have doubts about the snake’s existence. The headless cat and bloody carcass of a bird, reportedly eaten by the snake, didn’t make sense because snake’s swallow their prey whole and eat every couple weeks at best. Plus, no one found any snake poop, which can be the size of dog feces.
"But I believe it now," Kurko said. "I don’t think they’re making it up. [The most recent witness] is too sincere. If we see the snake going into a hole, we’ll get a backhoe to pull him out."
Four people said they’ve seen the snake.
More proof of it could be Dianne Duchossois’ cat. The feline fled to the attic the night before the snake was spotted at her neighbor’s on Monday.
"The cat never goes up there," Duchossois said. "And when my daughter brought it up to the door, its hair raised up and everything. They say that cats can sense their predators."
Diane Barber, a curator at the Fort Worth Zoo, said a snake likely is prowling around Bristol.
"It’s probable, and it is possible for them to be the length of a car," she said. "If it’s a python, people do find them underneath their houses. As far as eating cats and stuff, they’re opportunistic feeders."
But she added: "I would be more afraid of a loose pit bull than I would of a loose python. The whole take-home message from this is that the snake probably isn’t going to hurt anybody. But if people have small pets, they may want to keep them inside for a while."
Waldron Wiles isn’t taking any chances.
The 23-year-old lives right next door to the property of the latest snake sighting. His 2-year-old daughter, Giselle, is banned from the backyard.
"Every night I’m looking out my window with a Maglite, scanning the yard," he said.
Wiles isn’t alone with his concern.
"According to a lot of studies, the snake is probably the most feared animal of all," said Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University.
"I’ve often wondered about that. Is it because of their slithering aspect and that they can disappear so easily? Or is that they’re different from four-legged things? Is it something primitive about them, or that they’re associated with such a range of horror?
"I do know that one of the biggest fears for humans is uncertainty."
Snake catcher on his way to Bristol

Experts: Snake not attacking cats, birds

By TODD MILLER
Bucks County Courier Times

It may have convinced Eve to eat the apple from the tree of knowledge, but according to experts it is not the reason for the reptile rampage in Bristol and Bristol Township.

For the past month, locals have been keeping an eye out for a snake that supposedly had eaten the head off a cat and parts of birds on Bath Street in Bristol.

On Thursday, animal control, police and even plumbers gathered in Bristol to corral a black snake, which managed to slip away.

A spokeswoman from the Philadelphia Zoo who is an expert on snakes said it's possible for snakes to eat small animals, but if they do, they will swallow them whole and not leave anything behind.

She also said that a snake's appetite would be less than usual with the weather being cooler for this time of year. And, she added, that a snake may eat only once or twice every two weeks.

“If this was mid-July, I would say these people may be onto something,” the spokeswoman said. “But in June with nights that are into the low 50s, not a chance.”

Nonetheless, officials vowed to catch the snake Friday night. William Kurko, Bristol Township's animal control officer, said Friday afternoon that he would stay up all night in hopes of catching the reptile, which only comes out after midnight, according to people who saw it.

He said he plans to use a special camera and to place flour on the ground to at least see what movement the snake is making.

But whether there's a snake or not, Bristol Township police officer Steve Sanocki, an amateur snake expert, said some people just aren't educated about snakes and worry too much,

“People see something they aren't used to seeing and think it's the Loch Ness monster,” Sanocki said. “I looked down that hole and all I saw was wings of birds and the smell of snake feces, no kittens.”

Last week Sanocki was called to a church to respond to reports of a 5-foot snake in the basement. When he arrived, he found a 2-foot snake no wider than his thumb.

“That is the type of snake anyone could find in their backyard,” the officer said.

On Wednesday, Sanocki did catch a 91/2-foot albino Burmese python near Runway Road off Route 13 in Bristol Township. A native to southeast Asia, the snake was obviously someone's pet, he said.

A spokesman from the San Diego Zoo in California said the situation in Bristol Township is a common problem in areas surrounded by lots of green. He also said that a snake enjoys the hunt for his food more than actually eating it, which is why is takes him so long to find a meal worth eating.

Local snake lover Mary Dicarlo of Falls heard about the snake issue Friday morning while listening to the radio on her way to work.

“Snakes really aren't that dangerous,” Dicarlo said. “They like to hide and keep to themselves. If you don't bother them, they most certainly won't bother you.”

Dicarlo has been around snakes for more than four years now and said she would not be scared if she lived in the area.

Whatever is causing the problems in Bristol, experts have the same advice for all the residents who live close to this area: Relax.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-06162007-1364115.html