13°
In the region, employees with the Albany Water Department got quite a scare on Friday, July 12, while responding to a broken 48-inch water transmission line in Tivoli Lake Preserve.
Shortly after arriving on site, crews encountered a 12-foot-long snake.
Albany Water initially identified the creature as a boa constrictor. Still, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) later clarified to Daily Voice that the serpent was actually a reticulated python measuring a whopping 12 feet, 10 inches long.
A DEC spokesperson said the snake appeared out of the undergrowth and began striking at their machinery before workers killed it with an excavator.
Nobody was injured in the ordeal.
DEC officers responded and removed the wayward reptile's body. It was taken to Cornell University to undergo a necropsy.
It was not immediately clear where the python came from, but the DEC speculated that it was most likely released into the wild by someone who kept it as a pet.
In New York, reticulated pythons are listed as a dangerous reptile and residents wishing to keep one as a pet must obtain a Dangerous Animal License from the DEC.
Among the biggest snakes in the world, reticulated pythons are native to South Asia and are non-venomous.
In 2011, one such python named "Medusa" in Kansas City, Missouri, was deemed the longest living snake ever kept in captivity – at a whopping 25 feet and 158 pounds – by Guinness World Records.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Berne-Westerlo-Rensselaerville and receive free news updates.
