Footage of the reptile was uploaded to Facebook on Monday by Stuart McKenzie, the owner of relocation service Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, who said the woman who owned the vehicle initially suspected that it could have been a “sick prank.”
In the video, one note that was attached to the window warned: “Snake, 2m, under car in around engine.” Another, on the windscreen, read: “snake in/under car.”
McKenzie, who attended the scene to escort the snake to a safer location, said the call-out had taken place in Currimundi, which is a coastal suburb of Caloundra, Queensland. He suggested the snake may have been attracted to the warmth of the engine.
“Oh, there is definitely a snake under here,” the snake expert was heard saying in the video, immediately after popping the hood and spotting the snake coiled underneath. McKenzie was able to lift the snake out of the car and put it into a protective bag.
The team transported the non-venomous python into some nearby bushland, where it quickly slithered out of the bag and curled itself around a nearby tree.
McKenzie said in the clip: “It just shows, it’s great to have good neighbors because they had written those notes and let her know that there was a decent sized carpet python in her engine bay. And it’s lucky that they told her because if she had taken off, it could have injured the snake, that probably would have damaged her car.”
The snake catcher added in a Facebook caption alongside the video that the incident was certainly “not something you want to wake up to in the morning.”
“We arrived to search for the snake, finding a 2m coastal carpet python curled up under the bonnet keeping dry from the morning rain. An awesome community act for the snake and the car owner who originally thought it was a sick prank. We relocated the snake back to the natural bushland where it is now out of harm’s way,” he wrote.
A species profile on the Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 website says the pythons can grow to up to four meters, which is the equivalent of more than 12-foot long. The one encountered on Monday was fairly average at the two meter mark.
Carpet pythons don’t have fangs or venom but have a mouthful of “small sharp needle like teeth” that can cause “substantial lacerations or punctures” if used on a person.
