In Australia, even leaving your car unattended in a parking lot is risky business if you want to avoid a snake encounter. One unlucky resident recently returned to their parked car to find a massive python tucked inside one of the vehicle’s wheel wells.
For some of us (especially those unused to large snakes), finding a python hiding in your car would be a waking nightmare. This resident, however, simply called snake catcher Stuart McKenzie to the scene so they could leave the parking lot without harming the sequestered serpent.
“Call’s just come in at a local establishment where essentially a big python was on the move in the car park,” McKenzie explained in a Facebook video detailing the rescue.
“It’s gone straight up into the wheel arch or the engine bay of one of the cars, and the person’s car who it is is wanting to leave. So we gotta get over there now and hopefully get the snake out, nice and quick and safely, and get it back in the bush.”
Reaching into the wheel well to retrieve the python, the snake catcher realized it was even bigger than he was expecting. Its size actually provided McKenzie with an advantage, though, as a smaller snake would’ve been far more difficult to remove.
“Look at the size of it! That is a big snake,” McKenzie said. “It’s usually not that easy to get him out of cars. But thankfully, I reckon this guy’s too big that he couldn’t get past where he was sitting.”
After pulling the snake from the car, McKenzie calmly places it into his bag and transports it to a wooded area. There, he releases the snake into the wild, watching with admiration as it climbs a tree with ease.
Snake pulled from car appears to be a carpet python
In the video, the snake catcher never reveals the species of python removed from the vehicle. That said, 15 species of python call Australia home, making up a quarter of the total snake population.
Looking at the snake, it appears to be a carpet python, the most commonly encountered species in the country. Like all pythons, this species is non-venomous. Rather than subduing their prey with venom, they use constriction to suffocate their victims.
At 8 feet in length on average, a carpet python can’t inflict any serious harm on a human, let alone death. Now, they can cause lacerations and punctures using their 80 backward-facing teeth. Such bites are rare, however, as the carpet python is a relatively docile species.
Regardless of the species, though, the dedicated snake catcher was simply relieved to have the opportunity to relocate the snake before any harm could come to it.
The python is incredibly lucky that passersby noticed it inside the wheel well. If they hadn’t the vehicle owner very well could have run it over without even realizing it was there.
“I’m so glad I was able to get him out of the car,” McKenzie said. “And I’m glad the people obviously notified the person whose car it was before he drove off, as that would have been an absolute disaster.”
