It sounds like the consensus is probably that the critter's best bet is probably the wooded lot. I would be inclined to let it go where I found it, but that was in the middle of a road! The snake obviously isn't a total idiot if it's lived long enough to reach this size, but it only has to make the mistake of getting run over once, and I almost did that to it myself.



If rats roam up to 33 acres then the snake could well make it back over to the road, but the woods, the water, etc. would probably give it less incentive to go over that way since it would have to cross multiple wide open residential lawns to get there, and I'm sure food is plentiful down there. Personally, I'd like to have it in my back yard for mole control, but I don't imagine it would be too effective with them since they live under the ground.



As far as winters are concerned, it can definitely get cold in the winters here, with sub-freezing temperatures being common for short stretches of a few days at a time. But there must be plenty of opportunities for denning in that lot with all the trees, underbrush and geological features, especially since someone who THOUGHT they were going to develop there cut down a lot of trees two summers ago and left piles of them laying around. Well, they finally realized why no one has developed the lot yet after 15 years, and those reasons are the same sort of things that would make it a happy home for any self-respecting snake.

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