This has got to be one of the strangest python stories in recent memory, and we’ve covered some unusual ones. Folks in southern Oklahoma are currently on the lookout for a giant albino reticulated python that has been living for months near a trailer park. Local officials hired wildlife control specialist Trevor Bounds to hunt and remove the snake, which has reportedly been subsisting on urban-dwelling critters.
“That thing has been eating opossums, foot-long rats, and cats,” Bounds told Fox 8. “The mouth on that thing is the size of your foot and when it opens up, you’re going to be able to fit something pretty large in there.”
The snake is believed to be a pet that escaped early in the summer, as reticulated pythons are native to south Asia—not Oklahoma. According to News 9, the snake’s cat-heavy diet has caused it to double in size since it escaped from captivity. Bounds says that at this point, the python likely poses a safety risk to the mobile home community’s residents—and potentially even the kids at a nearby elementary school.
“It’s been out there for five or six months so at this point it is un-handleable,” he said. “It’s not going to be chill.”
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Bounds has set up thermal cameras around the trailer park and is optimistic he will catch it soon. According to Zoo Atlanta, reticulated pythons are considered the largest species of snake in the world and are known to grow well beyond 20 feet long.
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