Live gopher snake found on Molokai shipping container
COURTESY PHOTO
A 20-inch-long nonvenomous gopher snake was found in a shipping container on Molokai Monday.
A live snake was found on Molokai Monday in a shipping container while it was being unloaded at a hardware store in Kaunankakai.
Maui County Police on Molokai were called to the hardware store shortly after 8 a.m., and arriving officers shot the snake with a pellet gun.
The snake was about 20 inches long and was identified as a nonvenomous gopher snake.
Molokai Invasive Species Committee staff held the dead snake at the hardware store until Maui Plant Quarantine Branch inspectors from the state Department of Agriculture arrived on the island. The container had been shipped from California to Molokai.
Agriculture inspectors and Molokai Invasive Species Committee staff searched the two pallets where the snake was found and did not find any other snakes or any evidence of snakes.
Gopher snakes are found in North America and can grow up to about 7 feet. Their diet consists of small rodents, young rabbits, lizards, birds and their eggs. Prey is killed by constriction and suffocation.
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In Hawaii, snakes are illegal to possess, have no natural predators, and pose a serious threat to Hawaii’s unique ecosystem as they compete with native animal populations for food and habitat, state Department of Agriculture officials said.
Anyone with information about illegal animals should call the statewide toll-free PEST HOTLINE at 808-643-7378.
