Pig hunters captured a live 9-foot, 3-inch boa constrictor Monday night on a dirt road by the Waiawa Correctional Facility, state officials said today.

A Department of Land and Natural Resources spokeswoman said the hunters spotted the snake on the road at about 6:30 p.m., captured it and put in a pick-up truck bed. One of the hunters was an off-duty police officer, according to the Honolulu Police Department.

When the hunters could not reach anyone at the Agricultural Department, they called a DLNR official whom they know. The DLNR officer took the snake at about 9 p.m. to the Honolulu Zoo to keep overnight.

The adult female snake was held overnight at the Honolulu Zoo, and state Department of Agriculture officials picked it up this morning, officials said. The 57-pound animal is being held at the department’s Plant Quarantine Branch near Sand Island.

Boa constrictors are nonvenomous and are native to Central and South America. Snakes have no natural predators in Hawaii and pose a serious threat to Hawaii’s environment, the Department of Agriculture said. Boa constrictors can grow up to 12 feet long and typically have a diet of small mammals such as mice and rats.