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DAILY NEWS (Galveston, Texas) 09 August 08 Venomous snake slips away again (Rhiannon Meyers)
Galveston: A viper has disappeared, once again, from its exhibit at Moody Gardens, but this time, police have a suspect.
Moody Gardens staff early Friday morning could not find the same African bush viper that disappeared from its exhibit exactly one month ago. But, this time, they noticed that someone tampered with the padlock on the cage, spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek said.
They shut down the entire exhibit, removed all of the snakes from the enclosure, scoured the area for the 10-inch snake and called Galveston police.
After the viper disappeared a month ago, biologists changed the padlock and restricted access. It appears that someone removed the entire padlock and the latch that attaches it to the door and then replaced it clumsily, said Greg Whittaker, animal husbandry manager.
The screws attaching the latch to the door were askew Friday morning, and paint around the padlock was chipped, Hamachek said. Galveston police have confiscated the lock and are dusting for fingerprints, Whittaker said.
“We know animals, but we don’t know people,” Whittaker said.
Detective Michelle Sollenberger said it seems the snake’s been stolen.
“I have no reason to be believe that the public is in any danger,” she said.
In an odd twist in an already serpentine tale, Sollenberger was a curator of a reptile exhibit in Hot Springs, Ark., for five years and has handled African bush vipers before.
She said this particular type of viper is a stationary animal, so it would be unusual for the snake to continue to escape the exhibit on its own.
She crawled throughout the exhibit Friday, searching for spots where the snake could have sneaked out on its own, but she couldn’t find any breaches in the exhibit.
Once again, Moody Gardens staff took X-rays of 6-foot-long Gaboon vipers that share the exhibit to determine whether they swallowed the smaller snake, Hamachek said. The X-rays showed no signs of the bush viper, Whittaker said. The other two bush vipers and three Gaboon vipers are being held in a backroom in the aquarium.
The exhibit is not monitored by video surveillance, and Moody Gardens does not run criminal background checks on its employees, Hamachek said.
When asked about the possibility that a staffer snatched the snake, Whittaker said they wondered about that when the snake went missing a month ago. Biologists found the snake 36 hours later curled on the mesh top of its enclosure. To prevent future escapes, Whittaker installed a new padlock and sealed the any gaps between the glass sides and mesh top of the enclosure with pieces of plywood.
As Whittaker looked at the empty exhibit Friday, he shook his head in disgust.
“It’s just so far outside the realm of what I consider possible,” he said Whittaker said the snake’s bite is not deadly to humans, but also said little is known about the venom.
“It’s not going to kill you, but it’ll ruin your weekend,” Sollenberger said.
Jeff Ettling, the curator of herpetology, or the study of amphibians and reptiles, at the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri, said there is a lot of controversy about the danger of the African bush viper’s bite, for which there is no known anti-venom, he said.
Because the snakes often live in remote areas and don’t frequently interact with humans, few people know what the viper’s venom does to humans, Ettling said.
Ettling recalled a story of a herpetologist who was bitten by an African bush viper at the St. Louis Zoo 13 years ago. He said one of the viper’s fangs simply grazed the man’s index finger as he was removing the snake from its enclosure; afterward, his kidneys failed and he required plasma transfusions, Ettling said.
This would not be the first time a Moody Gardens animal was stolen. A Moody Gardens electrician pleaded guilty to stealing 15 federally protected tortoises in 2004.
The man took 13 red-footed tortoises and two Indian tortoises and sold them to a someone in the animal trade. William Larry Johnson, 64, got five years probation. He is not a suspect in this case.
The tortoises all belonged to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, whose agents confiscated the animals Oct. 2, 2003, at Bush International Airport after finding them being flown from Venezuela to Japan without permits.
Venomous snake slips away again

saw this on Yahoo!.
snake is probably being sold right now.

“It’s not going to kill you, but it’ll ruin your weekend,”
I've said this EXACT thing before, but not about a snake. It was about a mixed drink.
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The Reticulated Rattler

1.0.0 Great Plains Ratsnake
1.0.0 Corn, Lavender Aztec het for Amel
0.1.0 Black Ratsnake
0.0.1 Texas Rat (tame)
1.0.0 Broad Banded Water Snake, Hypo
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2.1.0 Godchildren, 1 Evil, 2 possible hets

DAILY NEWS (Galveston, Texas) 16 August 08 Missing viper returned to Moody Gardens (Sara Foley)
Galveston: A venomous snake that officials suspected was stolen last week from Moody Gardens was returned Friday night, but police still don’t know who took the African bush viper from its cage.
Cleaning crews found the snake resting against a window sill at the back door of the visitor center, Moody Gardens spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek said.
“We’re 100 percent sure it was dumped back on our doorstep,” animal husbandry manager Greg Whittaker said. “Where it was found was not somewhere it could have gone by itself.”
Police will likely examine video surveillance of the grounds, which may have captured an image of the person returning the snake, Hamachek said. There is no video surveillance of the exhibit.
The snake had been missing since Aug. 8, when Whittaker said someone removed the entire padlock and the latch on the exhibit’s door and then replaced it clumsily. The lock had been replaced after the same snake disappeared for 36 hours in July. It was found just outside the confines of its exhibit. Officials thought then it escaped on its own, but this time, they were sure it had help.
Earlier this week, Moody Gardens employees who had contact with the snake before it went missing underwent lie detector tests.
Galveston police confiscated the lock and dusted it for fingerprints, Whittaker said.
Whittaker said the viper appears to be in good health. But he said he’s still puzzled why anyone would steal the snake, which is worth between $75 and $100.
“It’s not a very dynamic snake,” he said. “They don’t do a whole lot. It’s really odd.”
This would not be the first time a Moody Gardens animal was stolen. A Moody Gardens electrician pleaded guilty to stealing 15 federally protected tortoises in 2004.
The man took 13 red-footed tortoises and two Indian tortoises and sold them to a someone in the animal trade. William Larry Johnson, 64, got five years probation. He is not a suspect in this case.
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=5a9f201ed236e0ca

HOUSTON CHRONICLE (Texas) 16 August 08 Snake missing from Texas aquarium turns up alive
Galveston, Texas (AP): A venomous snake that's gone missing twice in the last month from its Galveston aquarium has turned up again.
Moody Gardens spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek said Saturday that the missing 10-inch African bush viper was found Friday night outside the entrance of the visitor center. Hamachek said officials believe someone left the snake there.
The snake went missing August 8 from the venomous snake exhibit. The same snake disappeared from its enclosure for two days last month until workers found it hiding atop a metal screen that seals the top of the enclosure.
At the time, Moody Gardens officials thought the snake had escaped on its own. The second time, they called police because the fastener holding the padlock to the exhibit appeared to have been tampered with and damaged.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5947959.html