Missing a 4-foot-long python? Surprise visitor waiting on patio for Beaufort couple
David Pickel and Melanie Reiner had an unexpected visitor when they arrived at their Beaufort home after a visit to Sands Beach in Port Royal on Sunday: A 4-foot long ball python.
“It was curled up on my boyfriend’s chair outside on our patio,” Reiner told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet on Wednesday morning. “And the snake is almost the same color of the chair so you had to take a second look. He was just hanging out sunning himself.”
It was the second exotic pet discovered on the loose in Beaufort County in two days. A green iguana — with a plastic tie around it’s neck — was found in Bluffton Monday.
“Has anyone in Green Pond, Beaufort area misplaced a ball python?” That was the message that Beaufort County Animal Services placed on Facebook Tuesday, prompting 111 comments and 42 shares.
Pickel and Reiner live in the Green Pond area of Shell Point. The python measured 51 inches, or 4 feet, 3 inches.
Typically, Beaufort County Animal Services keeps exotics that are found in the wild at LowCountry Exotics in Bluffton, says Director Tallulah Trice, until the owners can be found or they are adopted. But Pickel and Reiner are comfortable housing the snake until the owner comes forward, Trice said, adding it’s possible the snake was released.
Exotics are a big threat to the Lowcountry, Trice notes.
Ball pythons, which Trice says are not native to the area, are not likely to survive the cold months here. But, with warming temperatures caused by climate change, she says, who knows what can adapt?
“It’s something we don’t want released in our community,” Trice said. “The chances of it encroaching in our community — we just want to stop it.”
Lionfish, another exotic that’s been released in the Lowcountry, she said, are causing damage to area reefs.
Trice encourages exotic pet owners to contact Beaufort County Animal Services at 843-255-5010 instead of releasing animals into the wild.
“If they can’t keep them — life happens — contact us and we will point them in the right direction,” Trice said.
A pregnant green iguana with a Zip Tie around its neck, Trice said, was discovered Monday along Swan Lake Drive in Bluffton..
Green iguana populations have exploded in Florida where they are causing extensive damage to commercial and residential landscape vegetation.
For now, Pickel and Reiner are keeping the snake in a 150-gallon terrarium, displacing some lizards. “He’s chubby,” Reiner said of the snake.
Ball pythons, native to central and western Africa, are the most popular pet python in the world, according to reptilesmagazine.com, because they are small for a python, generally friendly and easy to care for. A 5-foot ball python is considered big, the magazine says, although lengths of 6 feet or more have been reported. “Ball” comes from their tendency to curl up.
Pickel and Reiner have had snakes as pets in the past.
“As soon as I realized what he was, he crawled right up on me,” Reiner said. “So he’s very friendly. Ever since he got here, he’s slept so who knows how long he’s been out in the wild.”
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 10:35 AM.
