MERCURY NEWS (San Jose, California) 19 November 10 Willow Glen boa constrictor? It's actually a python, snake lovers say (Lisa Fernandez)
Snake lovers near and far pointed out by e-mail and heated voice mails that the three-foot snake discovered in a San Jose couple's driveway on Thursday afternoon was not a boa constrictor, but a ball python.
Noor Tietze, a manager with Santa Clara County Vector Control, acknowledged today that the technician who scooped up the snake from a driveway curled up in a ball, may have gotten his snake identification wrong.
"We're well-trained in our local snakes," Tietze said. "But we're not experts on the exotic kinds."
The long, brown-spotted snake was discovered just before noon by Katie and David Arken in their Willow Glen neighborhood. They were headed to The Home Depot when they spotted what they thought was a boa constrictor.
They first called 911, where a dispatcher referred them to vector control. A technician came out, recognized the snake as belonging to the roommate of the Arkens' next-door neighbor, because it has escaped at least twice before, and returned it there. The technician told the couple that he thought it was a boa constrictor.
But reptile mavens swiftly contacted the Mercury News, positive that the identification was incorrect. They sent Wikipedia links and other website information to prove their point. They said from the looks of the snake, photographed by David Arken, that the species was a ball python, a relatively small and docile type of snake that eats small rodents and are native to western parts of Africa. They are called ball pythons because when they are frightened, they turn into a ball. They are not poisonous.
Turns out, though, that ball pythons are in the same family as the boa constrictor. Both types coil around their prey and suffocate them before eating them.
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MERCURY NEWS (San Jose, California) 18 November 10 Willow Glen couple find large snake in driveway: 'What do you do?' (Lisa Fernandez)
Katie and David Arken were headed to the Home Depot just before lunch Thursday to buy some flooring for their Willow Glen home when they spotted a snake curled up in a ball at the bottom of their driveway.
Not just your average garden variety. A big one. It was at least three feet long.
The Arkens called 911.
A dispatcher suggested the couple call Santa Clara County Vector Control. A woman there told Katie Arken she would "try" to send someone if she could. Then, the 58-year-old registered nurse called San Jose Animal Care and Services and pushed "star" to report an emergency. She got voice mail. And the voice mail was full.
"What do you do when you have a snake in your driveway and animal control isn't answering the phone?" Katie Arken asked, as her 64-year-old husband, a retired IBM employee, snapped photos of the long, brown, spotted reptile hanging out in suburbia. He also trapped the creature under a 5-gallon plastic bucket until help could arrive. "I am scared to death of snakes," Arken said. "But my husband loves them.''
But just before 1 p.m., Peter Gotcher, a technician with vector control, arrived at the Arkens' home. He said he recognized the snake. It had gotten loose inside a neighbor's house a few months ago. He scooped it up and delivered it next door.
"If it's a pet or domesticated, it's really animal control's,'' said Noor Tietze, a manager at vector control. "But we rolled on this one anyway.''
Arkens had no idea that the person renting a room in their neighbor's home owned a snake, and that it has escaped twice.
"It just makes me very concerned how secure that cage is," Katie Arken said.
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