By Mark Price
The Charlotte Observer
LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Opening the hood of a automotive in Florida affords a degree of threat like no different state, so no rationalization was wanted when a caller reported a “15- to 20-foot python” tangled of their engine.
Burmese pythons are an invasive species of snake that may attain 18 toes in South Florida, and they’re identified to indicate up wherever at any time — like alligators.
The name got here Monday, March 25, within the Lee County neighborhood of Lehigh Acres, and the responding sergeant knew immediately one thing was off.
Sgt. James VanPelt of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office discovered one thing orange coiled across the automotive’s battery, like a misplaced jumper cable.
And it was staring again at him slightly defiantly, judging from images.
It was clearly not a Burmese python.
Video shared by the sheriff’s workplace exhibits VanPelt cast forward anyway, permitting the feisty snake to lunge and chunk his hand, which was sheathed in a heavy glove.
He then pulled it out, like a hair in a bowl of soup.
So what was it?
“A red rat snake, soaking up heat from the engine bay,” the sheriff’s workplace wrote. “The snake was safely removed and released, unharmed, in a nearby wooded area.”
Red rat snakes aren’t venomous and common about 30-48 inches in size, although the most important can attain round 72 inches, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reviews.
Mating season for the species begins in April, which might clarify why one confirmed up in an surprising place.
Lehigh Acres is a few 140-mile drive southeast from Tampa.
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