Tag Archives: Snakes On A Plane

No one told me that there would be snakes here

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While investigating our move to North Carolina last year, no one told me that there would be snakes involved. I’m sort of a city person, my wildlife and camping experiences are limited and I’m not a huge fan of rodents. I didn’t think much about snakes in Ontario.

I’m starting to think about snakes a lot more now — I saw a story on Fark.com today about a snake in Brunswick County (N.C.). A serious snake:

"Two brothers were just driving along N.C. 133, near Orton Plantation, on Wednesday morning when they noticed a large snake – different from those native to the area – in the roadway. “We thought it was a rattlesnake,” said Billy Ballard, of Oak Island. But a closer look and, later, an expert opinion revealed it was actually a boa constrictor that stretched at least 7 feet long."

"The brothers, on their way to Wilmington for an appointment, brought the snake to the StarNews, where about a dozen people – the ones who apparently did not have a phobia of snakes – came outside to hear the brothers’ story."

"“He’s wounded. We just have to care for him,” Billy Ballard said. “He’s got a family. You can’t tell me he’s just a stray.”"

Who grabs a snake from the highway, thinking that it might be a rattle snake, throws it in the back of a truck and takes it to the newspaper?

I had my own snake sighting last week. While visiting a farm in Chatham County with a bunch of food safety folks, we saw a snake (left, exactly as shown), known to my tour companions a "big black snake" (creative taxonomist).

I’m feeling a bit like Indiana Jones.

Enough is enough: I’ve had it with this mofo snakes on this mofo plane

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Samuel L. Jackson would be proud of Australia’s Qantas airlines after four pythons escaped from their carrier and became snakes on a plane.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the plane was grounded and fumigated after the snakes could not be found.

Native to the arid and rocky parts of western and central Australia, the Stimson’s python eats its prey whole — and this includes small mammals, birds, frogs and other reptiles.
 

More snakes on a plane

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The Associated Press is reporting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has fined a man $800 for flying dead snakes and birds inside his luggage from South Korea to Atlanta.

Last month, security officers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport found 30 snakes, a dead bird and pieces of several other birds in his luggage.

Darwin Huggins, Fish and Wildlife agent in charge of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, said,

"They’re typically used in traditional Chinese or Asian medicine,” said. ”Some of the snakes had scorpions in their mouths. And they were preserved in wine. It’s a medicinal type wine that certain cultures drink."

Where’s Samuel L. Jackson when you need him.