Missing python prompts Kingston search

Published On: Aug 13 2013 03:12:21 PM EDT

If you see a big, long python slithering anywhere near Smelt Pond and Independence Mall in Kingston, the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife would like to know about it.

Agency staff members have been checking the area since Monday, after Kingston police referred reports of snake sightings to the agency’s regional office in Bourne, the Patriot Ledger reported.

"They're out there now," Fisheries and Wildlife assistant director Tom French said Tuesday.

French said descriptions given to the agency indicate that they’re probably looking for a Burmese python, a popular and legal species, or possibly a reticulated python, which is illegal in Massachusetts.

If it is found and is a reticulated python, French said the incident will become a law enforcement investigation.

French said it is possible the snake is as long as 16 feet, since both species typically grow that long. He said eyewitnesses reported seeing a snake extend across a narrow road behind the mall area, but they didn't measure it.

He said the python most likely escaped from a cage when its owner set the cage outside in the sun, and he isn’t sure if the missing snake will be found.

He said his staff was informed days after eyewitness sightings, so an organized search didn’t begin until Monday. Now they have to wait for another bright, sunny day, and hope the snake will emerge from the brush to warm itself.

"A big snake is hard to find, even in brush," French said. "And it's a tropical snake. If it's not found by the fall and the night temperatures drop, it won't survive."

He said "a few hundred" Burmese pythons are kept as pets in Massachusetts, while it's hard to estimate the number of reticulated pythons, since they're illegal and would be kept in private.

French urged anyone who makes a possible sighting to call the fisheries division’s Bourne office at 508-759-3406. He said no one should attempt to capture a python because "it’s a two-person snake."


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