GREAT BEND (AP) — When a motorist called Great Bend police to report a “really big snake” stretched from one side of a city street to the other, officers called Mike Cargill, director of the Great Bend Zoo.
Imagine Cargill’s surprise about 1 a.m. Tuesday when he discovered that the snake was a 14-foot reticulated python that was supposed to be safely sleeping in his zoo.
When the sun came up Tuesday, Cargill discovered that a mower had left a hole in the fence around the python exhibit, just large enough for the python to squeeze through. The zoo’s perimeter fence, which was meant to stop mammals, was no challenge for the snake.
Cargill said the python likely stretched itself across the blacktop road to warm up in the 65 degree temperatures.
That is where it was when the driver stopped, luckily in time, and 911 was called.
Cargill was able to recapture the wandering reptile and move it and another python to a secure site.
madpoet (anonymous) says...
That would have been some speed bump. :)
August 26, 2009 at 2:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )