An elderly gentleman in Australia was surprised when he discovered a wild animal in the glove compartment of his car. While encounters with the wild are common in Australia, he didn’t expect to find a 5-foot snake coiled up in the box. Wisely not wanting to touch the animal, the man called the reptile rescue Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers to remove the python safely from the vehicle.
Injured 5-foot python saved by reptile rescue
A 5-foot (or 1.5-meter) coastal carpet python was found still hidden inside the glove compartment when catchers arrived to the scene, in a video posted by the snake rescue on its official Facebook page.
While carpet pythons are not venomous, they still have sharp, backward-curving teeth that can cause deep lacerations and bacterial infections with its bite.
The man wondered how the snake got into the space in the first place. The rescuer explained that it likely entered through the engine bay and behind the dashboard before settling into the glove box. She wanted to approach the python slowly and carefully, in part because she was worried that the animal would slither back into the interior of the car where it would be much difficult to retrieve.
In a follow-up video showing the removal of the snake, the catcher entices the animal to come out with a thin hook tool and notices that it isn’t “happy.” Upon touching the python, she discovers that the reptile was extremely warm, suggesting that it was quite comfortable coiled up in the compartment.
It’s not until the python is on the ground that one of the rescuers realizes that there seems to be something like a feather coming out of its side. The catcher examines it further and discovers that it’s actually tissue and that the snake had been injured somehow. She then shows off the python’s “beautiful blue eyes” to the camera at the end of the video.
The python was immediately transported to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital in Queensland, a facility that was founded by the famous Irwin family, where the animal is expected to recover and be released back into the wild.
