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Snake catcher catches a 10-foot-long python, plus its 14-foot-long skin, from the roof of a suburban home after residents wondered where all the possums had gone.
- Snake hunter finds roof of 4.3-meter python-skin house
- The python was not that long coming in at 3.25 meters.
- The owners alerted him when they saw the tail hanging on the wall.
A snake hunter was able to unfurl more than four meters of molted snakeskin after making the incredible find on the roof of a house, and then had to remove the python it came from.
Snake hunter Bryce Lockett found the 4.3-metre skin still in one piece on Tuesday morning while hunting a massive snake that had taken up residence on property in the south Brisbane suburb of Mt Gravatt.
Lockett, 28, told Daily Mail Australia that the single sheath of discarded scales, which pythons shed two to 12 times a year as they grow, was a rare find.
“It’s a pretty big skin,” he said.
“I’ve never found one that long, they usually break and break down, so it’s nice to have a full one.”
Snake catcher Bryce Lockett found an incredible 4.3 meter long python skin on the roof of a Brisbane house
Lockett said that shedding snakeskin is generally 30 to 40 percent longer than the snake it came from.
This turned out to be true when he located the 3.2 meter python.
“I ended up finding it in the wall cavity, so I had to remove a little bit of the sheetrock to go find it,” Lockett said.
He’s up there with one of the biggest I’ve ever caught. They grow between three and a half and four meters. It is quite a large animal.
The captured snake was not as long as its shed skin and was up to 3.25 meters long.
Lockett said the homeowners only found out they were cohabiting with the reptile when they saw its tail dangling from a hole in the wall while they were in the bathroom.
This event also cleared up the mysterious disappearance of the opossums.
“He (the snake) was eating all the possums that were coming into the ceiling space,” Lockett said.
They counted five possums that have disappeared in the last four or five months.
“They had seen the hole in the ceiling and assumed they were just taking off, but it turned out that the snake was eating them.”
The owners called Mr. Lockett out of fear that their little dog might take a liking to the snake.
“Their dog isn’t much bigger than an opossum, that’s when they got worried,” Lockett said.
He described the python as “quite relaxed” about being brought out of hiding.
Although pythons are venomless, Lockett said they still need to be handled with care.
“I can be a little bit more relaxed with a python because if I get bitten, I’m not going to die,” he said.
‘But they have about 80 needle-sharp teeth. One that size could hurt you if it bites you the wrong way.
Lockett took the snake away to release it in a wildlife area near where it was caught.
Australian snake catchers have reported a busy season, and Lockett said he also had plenty of customers.
“It’s hatching season, so there are a lot of small juveniles moving around,” he said.
As for the shed, Mr. Lockett had claimed it as a souvenir.
“I’m taking it home for the kids,” he said.