When a Pearl City family spotted a 2-1/2-foot long snake in their garage Monday evening, they immediately called police.
After consulting with the Honolulu Zoo, which contacted a state agricultural inspector, the police officers learned it was a nonpoisonous ball python, which can grow up to 6 feet, and managed to capture it.
“It’s nonvenomous but they do have teeth,” said Keevin Minami, a land vertebrate specialist for the state Department of Agriculture’s Plant Quarantine Branch. Noting that the snake’s teeth face inward, he added, “If it latches onto your hand or arm, normally if you yank it, all the teeth would break off and you could get a nasty infection.”
Minami estimates about a half-dozen ball pythons have been found in the past three years in Hawaii.
Common as pets on the mainland, ball pythons are natives of Central and West Africa, related to boa constrictors and are also constrictors that subdue their prey by coiling around and suffocating them, the Agriculture Department said.
The snake caught Monday is likely 2 to 3 years old and was taken from the Kaweloka Street house to the Pearl City police substation and later transferred to the Plant Quarantine Branch. Janelle Saneishi, spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, said it will be shipped to the mainland where it will likely be put in a zoo, sanctuary or reptile farm.
Minami said that because Hawaii has no animals that prey on snakes, “one of the main concerns is it can easily establish itself in a tropical environment.” Birds are vulnerable to snakes such as the ball python.
Snakes are illegal in Hawaii but can be turned in under the state’s amnesty program to any state Agriculture Department office, the Honolulu Zoo or any humane society, no questions asked and no fines assessed.
Persons possessing illegal animals may be charged with a Class C felony and fines up to $200,000 and three years in prison. Anyone with information on illegal animals should call the state’s toll-free pest hotline at 643-PEST (7378).