# Scrub Python



## votality (Mar 25, 2011)

Hi Guys,

Went out to move my Guinea Pig cage and saw this friendly fellow sitting ontop of my heavily over engineered Guinea Pig cage. He looked like he was 3-4m long.





Im not a snake person but it looks like a common Scrub Python/Amethystine Python. Anyone from Cairns know if anything else poisionous that looks like it ?

His head did look like this Scrub Python/Amethystine Python, Morelia amethystina at Lake Barrine, Australia | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (Not my pic)

He seemed keen to hang around and have a late night snack (lucky I made an over engineered guinea pig cage with no gaps!). After a bit of persuasion with a garden rake (i had to push him off the cage) and he decided to go hide out in my garden next to the cage. Tried to relocate him, found him in a tree in the Garden and managed to coax him out of it but he went for cover in the middle of the garden. Wasn't keen to fish him out in the dark in the rain... If he is a common python and we meet paths again I might relocate him to the bush across the road. I might get him a rat present to soften the blow of relocation. (Id rather that than he eat my cat!)

The only thing I was glad about was that I didnt meet his bigger older brothers. We have seen some snakes late at night crossing the road around the corner and they are atleast as long as the road is wide (6m+). (maybe a different species, bloody big anyway!)

Unfortunatley ran over one, one night (he was in a dip so I didnt see him until he was about 20m infront of me). I had no time to stop and couldnt swerve as he was across the entire road. Decided skidding on him would do more damage than going over him.

By the way sorry about only catching the ar$e end in the photo but the subject seemed unwilling to commit to photo opportunities after being politely being asked to move with a garden rake.

I'll have to tell the neighbours not to hurt him if they see him. I feel sorry for him the Guinea pigs must have been like a vending machine that wont hand over that packet of chips you want!. Haven't we all been there. Poor little bugger if someone tries to hurt him. If someone tried to clobber me over the head with a shovel/axe every time I went to the fridge id be in deep trouble.. and abet a fair bit thinner!


----------



## hilly (Mar 25, 2011)

100% scrub python. How long do you estimate this one was?


----------



## votality (Mar 25, 2011)

hilly said:


> 100% scrub python. How long do you estimate this one was?



id guess 3-4m he was as you can see still pretty slender.. he was wrapped behind the cage then had his head looking for a way into the roof.. bad news for him the ceiling has mesh  I anticipated the "inbetween the corrugations" in the iron roof attack !


----------



## BLACKY75 (Mar 25, 2011)

hilly is spot on


----------



## votality (Mar 27, 2011)

Ding Ding ROUND 2

Despite an extensive search of the garden my nolegged friend was no where to be found today.

However this evening my missus went out to feed the Guinea Pigs (in the dark again). Luckily this time i had the presence of mind to put the hutch beside the house suspecting my friendly python would be back (and I could turn some ourdoor lights on if we had some action). Despite my warnings to her NOT to go out on her own, she went out without me. The hutch has plastic roof sheets resting up against it to stop rain coming in sideways. We just pull them off when moving the cage. So she is pulling one off and pops her head around the roof bit towards the front of the cage and has a snake in her face. Oh I wish I had a camera at this moment. I hear a scream come from her. Through two doors and the other side of the house. I run out and expect to find that she found the snake and got bitten. Luckily for her the snake was facing the other way... 

Anyway armed with the knowledge its just a python and wont kill me (thanks hilly) I resist my urge to squeal like a school girl myself.. and this time head out with my trusty rake and my wheelie bin (with some news paper soaked in guinea pig pee in the bottom). After a bit of coaxing my serpentie friend was coaxed into the wheelie bin. I really do think he smelt the newspaper. 

I then was able to safely wheel him into the bush across the road and dump him into the small creek (1.5m wide 30cm deep). Did this because it was a 0.5m drop and he would have to swim up the creek 50m to get out. Better than on the gound as it was 10cm grass and I was trying to hold a torch/wheelie bin. This missus was hiding 150m away back at the house (Wuss). On the cool side I got to see him have a swim and he was definitly about 4m stretched out. 

All in all a pretty successful mission. I hope 150m away (across our road/close) was enough or we may go round three in a couple of days/weeks. I think this fella has been hanging around in my neighbours back yard for a few months as she saw one one day. With any luck there are no scent trails leading him back to my "Guinea Pig snake vending machine". My neighbour and missus wanted me to take it a few km away.. as I said to them.. there are probably quite a few others in the bush across the road anyway... Plus people would wonder what hell im doing wheeling a wheelie bin around the suburb.. probably get pulled up by the cops for dumping a dead body or something !

I got a good look at his head. Wasnt very big. I dunno if this means he is still young or not. Saw his tongue this time and he did strike the rake a couple of times when I was pushing him toward the bin. I suspect he wasnt too happy about loosing a meal two nights in a row...


----------



## GeckoJosh (Mar 27, 2011)

Wow, what a night lol., good on you for not killing him and taking the time to remove learn about the species and remove him safely!!!!!!!


----------



## votality (Mar 27, 2011)

What I can't wait to see is ... will the missus be smart enough to not go out on her own again.. lol...


----------



## moosenoose (Mar 27, 2011)

Good read! And nice to see you helping it instead of reaching for a shovel  Well done!


----------



## LatinaCarrino6 (Mar 27, 2011)

scrubby, someone probably lost him ?


----------



## byron_moses (Mar 27, 2011)

wild scrubby mate good stuff and congrats on not becoming a shovel member cheers for sharing


----------



## slim6y (Mar 27, 2011)

LatinaCarrino6 said:


> scrubby, someone probably lost him ?


 
He is in Cairns - they're kind of native here, I've seen plenty, and I can guarantee none were 'somebody's' pets.

A regular site member here had a scrubby break into their guinea pig cage. It ate a guinea pig and stayed in the cage to digest (and I guess so it wouldn't have to go as far for the next meal).

While it was digesting the said guinea pig, the other guinea pigs used to come up to it and tap the snake on the nose in a sort of 'you can't catch me' game. Once they tapped the snake on the nose they'd run away again. 

Poor snake, had to be removed. But it had a decent feed. 

I've removed a 4m scrubby (with the help of a very dear friend) from another friends house one night - we went in with a pillow case (we had no snake bags at the time) and ended up leaving with a scrubby wrapped in a sheet!!! That was at Lake Placid.

Thank you for also having a bit of understanding about these animals.


----------



## votality (Apr 1, 2011)

Well just as a little footnote to this little escapade... 

I was watching the local channel 10 news and saw that nine.. thats right nine cats in Cairns have been eaten in the last five weeks by snakes. (They say the snakes have been scared out of the drains by the rain, but I don't think so as it hasn't been that wet in Cairns - it has been much wetter than this before. Do the snakes usually get more active just before the cooler months begin? When I guess they are less active.. even although it only usually gets to 15-12 at coldest here.)

Only 5 minutes before the second snake attack, my cat wanted to go outside and the cage that the snake was found on was 3.5m - 4.0m from the door! Phhheew that was lucky for my cat !

Also upon closer inspection of the "over engineered cage/hutch" showed that the snake gave the cage an absolute thrashing... 

The snake:

1) Peeled the mesh back on the corners where it met.
2) Broke some mesh on the other corner while peeling it back.
3) Peeled some of the mesh up from the bottom of the cage but didnt quite get enough off to get enough slack to get in.
4) Bent the aluminium that has mesh attached where the roof the lid comes down, trying to squeeze between the roof lid and frame.
5) Bent some mesh under the eve's of the roof section (Which doesnt matter as the cage also has a mesh ceiling)

The snake is a bloody machine!.. He was channeling his inner crow/jimmy bar when he had a crack at the cage. Next time i need to pry something open im getting a snake. I reckon 30 minutes more and he would have got in. Needless to say the guinea pig cage now has two 50 pack packets of cable ties. Every 5cm of the mesh is now cable tied to the frame so he cant pry it off. Also the corners are cable tied on the edges.

On the good side (for my pets).. my friendly python has not been seen again...

And when telling my other neighbour about the python she told me last year they had a taipan in their back lawn.. oh f#&k that... I won't be catching any of those...


----------

