Snake sleeping off a meal found on a toy shelf in Australia day care. See its capture
Snake catchers had to head back to school after day care workers in Australia noticed something new on a shelf.
“What a strange looking toy,” Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 said in a March 13 Facebook post. “You wouldn’t want your child grabbing it by mistake!”
On a wooden shelf about knee-high along the wall, a snake was curled up next to a toy triceratops, a photo shows.
It was a coastal carpet python, the catchers said, a nonvenomous python that can grow to a few meters in length.
“No children have been near this one,” snake catcher Brandon said in a video posted by the team on March 14. “They’ve spotted it, and so now we are going to remove him.”
The snake catcher said the python had recently eaten, and carpet pythons are “on the move” this time of year.
“It’s the big hit before we start to cool off in the months and they slow down,” the catcher said.
Carpet pythons are active during all times of the day when they are on the hunt, according to Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, and are known for being great climbers and making a home in roofs and homes.
When the snake was pulled from the shelf, a portion of its belly was engorged, filled with some kind of tasty treat, the catcher said.
“He looks like Jurassic Park!” he said.
The catcher said the ribs of the snake aren’t attached and the jaw can unhinge, making it possible for pythons to swallow critters larger than their body.
The snake will likely take a few days to digest whatever bird or mammal it had recently eaten, the catcher said.
“He was in a food coma!” the catcher said.
The python was carefully lifted into a cloth bag and returned to “the bush,” according to the snake catcher.
Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 are based in Queensland, about a 65-mile drive north of Brisbane.
This story was originally published March 19, 2024 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Snake sleeping off a meal found on a toy shelf in Australia day care. See its capture."
