Daily Reptile News

Rattlesnake hunter plans guilty plea

MALTA, Idaho, July 20 (DRN) — An Idaho man who allegedly captured and possessed 27 rattlesnakes illegally said he is planning to plead guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

Terry Brian Teeter, 38, of Malta, said he will plead guilty to a charge of possession of more than the allowed number of snakes in exchange for prosecutors dropping a charge of possessing snakes in insufficient cages, the Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho, reported Tuesday.

Teeter, who is expected to be issued a $245 fine at his Friday sentencing, said he was previously unaware of state laws requiring permits to hunt and keep rattlesnakes. The law also only allows for permit holders to hunt four rattlesnakes per year.

Authorities said Teeter was found in May to be keeping 27 of the reptiles in a 5-gallon bucket.

Teeter said he now plans to give up rattlesnake hunting.

“I don’t want to get in any more trouble,” he said.

Python captured near Bronx gas station

A 5-foot-long, green Python snake was captured early yesterday morning by cops after it was found near a gas station in the Bronx.

A worker at the Extra Gas Station alerted cops about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning when he found the dark-green beast slithering near some trash inside the station on East 161st Street near Park Avenue in the Melrose section, sources said.

It took some time, but cops finally corralled the snake into a box, and he was delivered to an East Harlem animal shelter for evaluation.

The reptile will eventually be sent to a habitat facility far from the Bronx, a shelter spokesman said.

The snake, which is about 3-years-old and appeared to be healthy, is not necessarily a danger to humans, officials said.

It can bite but it’s bite is not poisonous. Instead of extracting a dangerous venom like other snakes, the python constricts its prey by wrapping itself around it and squeezing, officials said.

It is not clear how the animal ended up at the service station, but officials speculate it may have been a pet and had outgrown its home, prompting it’s owner to abandoned it.

Finding snakes in the city is not uncommon. The NYC Center for Animal Care and Control takes custody of about 15 snakes found in the urban wilderness every year, officials said.

Dead man partly eaten by monitor lizards

AYUTTHAYA : A legless, decomposing man found dead beside a roadside pond had likely been eaten by monitor lizards, not murdered as first thought, police say.

Shocked villagers flocked to view the grisly find yesterday, amazed that such a “murder” could occur in their normally peaceful surroundings.

But police said an examination concluded that Wan Saengthong, 74, who lived in Moo 5 of tambon Plaiklad in Bang Sai district, had probably fainted and died of natural causes before the monitor lizards moved in to devour his lower body.

Bang Sai district police station chief Prawet Fongsamut said there was a misunderstanding among villagers that someone had murdered a man and cut his body in half.

Pol Col Prawat admitted he was shocked when he received reports of the corpse being found in such a horrific manner in a peaceful community where homicides were almost unheard of.

A preliminary forensic examination showed the man had been dead for at least 10 days and speculated the body had been eaten by monitor lizards from the waist down.

Police said that Wan was “a lonely old man who had begun to lose his memory”.

Wan was often seen walking aimlessly around the village.

They said it was possible that he had fainted during his wanderings and then died without anybody knowing until he was found yesterday.

Ala. man shocked by alligator in front lawn

BIRMINGHAM, Ala (DRN) — While doing some yard work Monday morning, a Birmingham, Ala. man found a 7-foot alligator relaxing in the front lawn.

Michael Hammock said he immediately called authorities after spotting the alligator.

Officers were able to safely subdue and transport the reptile to his natural habitat.

Experts said the gator just wandered too far away from a nearby river.

As a result of the surprise visitor, Hammock said he’s going to have a difficult time getting his wife out the house from now on.

Amazing photo! Image captures whale as it leaps from water, smashes boat

It was one whale of a tale… literally.

A couple enjoying a beautiful day of sailing had a terrifying run in with a massive mammal that left their craft seriously damaged, and the whale likely not feeling too good, either.

“We’d spotted it about 100 meters away and thought that was the end of it,” said Paloma Werner, who was on the boat with her boyfriend and business partner, Ralph Mothes. “Then suddenly it was right up beside us.”

The couple, experienced sailors who operate the Cape Town Sailing Academy together, had noticed the whale as they cruised through Table Bay, near Cape Town harbor, when it approached their vessel.

“I assumed it would go underneath the boat, but instead it sprang out of the sea,” the 50-year-old said. “We were very lucky to get through it, as the sheer weight of the thing was huge.”

The Southern right whale, an endangered species common to those waters which can weight up to 60 tons, then shot up and smashed into the Intrepid, a 32-foot yacht with a steel hull.

Mothes, 59, who was piloting the boat, ducked behind the wheel as the whale thrashed around the deck and destroyed their mast, before finally slipping back into the water.

“Miraculously nothing happened to us,” Werner told CNN.

The moment was photographed by a tourist from Botswana, who was aboard a nearby boat. The couple used their boat’s engine to pilot the broken vessel back to shore.

Despite being frightened for their lives, and their boat, the couple aren’t holding a grudge against the beast from below the sea.

“He was just having fun,” Wener said. “They have very poor eyesight and obviously if they’re breaching visibility is very poor. The whale did not intend to attack us.”

Snake hunter shoots himself in arm

HOUMA — A 31-year-old man shot himself in the arm Monday morning while trying to kill a snake, police said.

Albert Pellegrin, of Klondyke Road, was using the stock of a .410-caliber shotgun to jab the grass underneath his trailer while searching for the snake, said Terrebonne sheriff’s office Maj. Malcolm Wolfe.

“He was trying to keep the snake from getting into his trailer,” Wolfe said.

The gun discharged, its bird shot piercing his upper left arm but missing the bone, Wolfe said. The gun did not have a safety latch, he said.

Pellegrin was treated at Terrebonne General Medical Center.

Heat lamp, reptile cage not a good mix at Abilene Zoo

A smoldering heat lamp atop a reptile cage at the Abilene Zoo forced officials to remove several animals from their cage late Saturday night, according to the Abilene Fire Department.

Several units responded to the call at 11:45 p.m. Saturday after a night watchman reported seeing smoke coming from the restrooms at the Creepy Crawley Center, which houses reptiles at the zoo. Firefighters reported seeing smoke but no visible flames.

“There was no fire, just a smoldering heat lamp,” said Vonceil Harmon, general curator for the zoo.

Crews found the heat lamp smoldering on top of the cage of the black spitting cobra and removed it. They then ventilated the buildings to reduce the level of carbon monoxide.

After the area was ventilated, the zoo curator, the night watchman and a herpetologist removed two snakes and a tortoise from the cage.

The heat lamp was repaired Monday, and the animals will be returned today when the area reopens for visitors.

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