The hunt is on for the big serpent, with a neighborhood wildlife professional making an attempt to shut in on the python after probably the most recent sighting on Friday
A 13-foot albino python feasting on cats and different animals has been terrorizing an Oklahoma neighborhood for months and the hunt for the big serpent is ramping up.
The python has been within the space of the the Burntwood Mobile Home Park for about 5 months, with probably the most recent sighting occurring Friday, reported KFOR-TV.
The snake has been sending panic all through the neighborhood.
“We’re talking, that thing has been eating opossums, foot-long rats and cats,” Trevor Bounds of Red Beard Wildlife Control advised the TV station.
Bounds has been employed to search out the python and take away it from the neighborhood.
“The mouth on that thing is the size of your foot and when it opens up you’re going to be able to fit something pretty large in there,” he said.
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Where did the 13-foot python come from?
Bounds described the python as an albino reticulated python. The species is not venomous and kills its prey by constriction.
It’s unclear where the python came from but the creatures are kept as pets and it could have broken free or been let out by its owner.
Area residents tell KWTV-DT that the snake has gotten twice as big since early summer, when KOFR-TV reports that cats seemed to start disappearing.
Residents are also concerned that the mobile home park is next to an elementary school and that there is no fence between the two.
“The constricting is what can be the dangerous part,” Bounds advised KOFR. “You can’t have small children or pets going near this thing, that’s why this should’ve been tackled a whole lot sooner. Things could have gotten much worse.”
Keeping a watch on the feline-eating snake
Last week, Bounds used a thermal digital camera to search for the snake. The digital camera allowed him to search out that the reptile had made a home for itself in a crawlspace underneath the ground of one of many space’s homes.
Inside the crawlspace had been a number of animal carcasses.
“I can imagine that each one of those cats put up a nasty fight,” Bounds stated. “When (the python) has been attacked that many times and to that extent, the nice non-aggressive pet snake we once knew is no more. This thing is dangerous now.”
Bounds created a lure across the home and has a 24-hour stay feed to keep watch over it, KFOR reported. The digital camera linked to the stay feed will alert Bounds when the snake strikes, hopefully permitting him to catch it.
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More on reticulated pythons
Reticulated pythons are native to Southeast Asia and sometimes attain as much as 16 toes as adults, based on a Michigan-based reptile zoo known as the Reptarium.
According to the zoo, the biggest recorded reticulated python measured a whopping 32 toes in size and weighed 350 kilos.
Calling the pythons “opportunistic feeders,” the reptarium stated the animals eat birds and mammals.
On common, their lifespans vary from 15 to twenty years however some have lived not less than 25 or 30 years, the zoo wrote on its web site.
