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Slithery escapee at large
09/03/2005 21:29 - (SA)
Colmar, France - Using lassos and cages, firefighters tried for a second day Wednesday to catch an elusive python that escaped from its owner's apartment through a hole in the wall.
The 1.2m-long Royal Python does not pose an immediate threat to humans, even though it bit its owner during a vain attempt to catch it Tuesday.
"Normally it isn't aggressive. It rolls up in a ball. It can bite if you really bother it, but that's not in its character," said Herve Lagrave of the Colmar fire brigade animal team. He reminded the public that pythons are not venomous.
Lagrave's unit already had tried to catch the snake on Tuesday but failed. On Wednesday, it went on a snake hunt but came up empty-handed.
Lagrave concluded that the snake could still be inside the wall of the building or in the basement, but probably not outside, where the reptile "would not last a day" in the frigid Alsatian winter.
Lagrave said the owner, not identified by name, doesn't know how the snake got out of the glass cage it shared with another python, but said it managed to slither through a hole in the bathroom wall and then through a technical hatch into the wall, Lagrave said.
"He will try to find a warm place to digest, because he ate two days ago. Pythons have a 15-day digestion cycle," Lagrave said.
- AP
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South Africa
