Walking down his driveway on Saturday morning, a man in Hervey Bay, Australia, saw a strange rope stretching across the wheel well of one car to the next. Stepping closer, he realized it wasn’t a rope at all but a massive 6.5-foot python lounging in a “very interesting position.”
The snake had apparently been wandering the driveway when it slithered beneath one of the cars, climbed on top of the wheel, then extended itself over to the other car, resting its head against another wheel.
Unsure of the snake’s species, the homeowner contacted Drew Godfrey of Hervey Bay Snake Catchers for help. Arriving at the home soon after, Godfrey, too, was surprised by the python’s strange positioning. “We’ve removed plenty of snakes out of cars before, but never seen one occupying two vehicles at once,” he wrote in a Facebook post documenting the relocation.
Assessing the situation, Godfrey found that the snake was a carpet python, a nonvenomous, relatively docile species.
Despite it being a harmless species, the homeowner made the right choice. Even in situations involving nonvenomous snakes, it’s wise to contact a professional for help. A snake will never attack unprovoked but it can and will bite if it feels threatened.
Now, a carpet python’s bite won’t kill or cause serious injury. But like any animal bite, it won’t be a pleasant experience, either. Just ask Steve Irwin, who was once bitten on the neck by a python just as he was explaining how docile it was.
Carpet pythons are native to Australia, but this one was likely an escaped pet
Surprisingly, Australia is not home to the most snake species in the world. That title belongs to Mexico, a country with nearly 400 different types of snakes within its borders. That said, Australia does hold some impressive reptilian accolades.
With 1,078 individual species, Australia has the highest number of reptile species in the world. It also houses more species of venomous snakes than any other country on Earth.
As for nonvenomous species, there are plenty. Take carpet pythons, for example – there are at least six subspecies of the nonvenomous snake across the country. They live in a wide range of habitats from the tropics to the desert, depending on the specific type. And, oddly enough, the one strung between the cars was not where it was supposed to be.
Examining the snake’s marking, Godfrey found it was a Murray darling carpet python. This species inhabits the rocky country and forests in the drier areas of the southeastern region of the country. Hervey Bay, where the snake was found, is home to the eastern or coastal carpet python, not the Murray darling.
Because of this, the reptile wrangler concluded that the driveway python must have been an escaped pet. With this being the case, he took the snake in rather than releasing it into the wild, as is typical in a reptile relocation.
“If anyone’s lost a pet Murray darling carpet python in Urangan, please let us know ’cause I think we might have found it,” Godfrey said.