PALM BEACH POST (Florida) 08 June 05 Rail workers find 13-foot python in Boynton (Dani Davies)
Photo at URL: Employees of the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary hold a 13-foot Burmese Albino Python that was found Tuesday along railroad tracks in Boynton Beach. (Shannon O'Brien)
Boynton Beach: When railroad workers spotted a large snake trying to catch a bird on the FEC tracks Tuesday, they called 911.
A snake? Outside? In Florida? The dispatcher was underwhelmed.
So they picked up the reptile — an albino Burmese python about the length of a minivan — and posed for a few snapshots before animal control officers arrived.
"I didn't touch it," said Latisha Lyons, who lives near the Florida East Coast Railway tracks at Southeast 23rd Avenue and lent her phone to the workers. "I just stood behind the guy who was holding it. I felt like I was going to pass out."
The yellow-and-white snake with pinkish eyes, between 13 and 14 feet long, weighed in at nearly 100 pounds, according to David Hitzig, executive director of the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter, which is caring for the snake.
"It was an absolutely gorgeous animal," said Liz Roehrich, Boynton animal control officer. "What's a little disturbing is that we don't have any lost reports from anyone."
Burmese pythons are not native to Florida but have become popular pets. Pet owners often abandon them when they grow too big to handle. In Florida, releasing an exotic animal into the wild is a third-degree misdemeanor.
"What people don't realize is that the little 1 or 2-foot snake can turn out to be more than 10 feet long," Hitzig said.
The snake was likely a pet that was either abandoned by or escaped from its owner, whom officials hope to hear from.
"We would like to reunite the snake with its owner if at all possible," Hitzig said. "They are going to have to prove the snake is theirs."
According to the National Zoo's Web site, Burmese pythons are the world's sixth biggest snake. They can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 200 pounds. They have no fangs and are nonvenomous. They eat about once a week, swallowing rodents, birds, rabbits and other snakes whole after coiling around and suffocating their prey.
As pets, the snakes can be dangerous. There have been rare instances of Burmese pythons killing people.
At the wildlife sanctuary Tuesday, the snake was measured, weighed and examined.
"He has a few scrapes and bruises," Hitzig said. "I think he's really confused at the moment."
Rail workers find 13-foot python in Boynton