https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/24/fright-of-her-life-gold-coast-woman-finds-five-metre-python-on-her-doorstep#img-1

Queensland snake catcher says 80kg albino Burmese python found in Oxenford is the largest he has come across in 27 years

Matilda Boseley

Tue 24 Mar 2020

Five-metre albino Burmese python captured at Gold Coast home – video

As a seasoned snake catcher, Tony Harrison is used to the people the claiming there is a five-metre snake on their doorstep. But for the first time on Monday, the caller wasn’t exaggerating.
“This was the largest snake I have come across in 27 years,” Harrison said. “The poor old lady who opened the front door to see it there got the fright of her life”

The giant albino Burmese python was found in the Gold Coast suburb of Oxenford.

With the snake weighing more than 80kg, Harrison said it was lucky for him the reptile was good-tempered.

“Burmese pythons are from overseas, so he is obviously someone’s illegal pet … he had been in captivity his entire life, he is used to being held.”
But a missing tail and scars across its body suggested the snake had lived a rough life.

Burmese pythons are an illegal species in Australia. They aren’t venomous but if they escape into the wild, as this one did, they can wreak havoc on the ecosystem.
“It eats the food that our native species needs, in other words, competes with that native species, and there’s potential for introduction of viruses … a snake for America comes in and he can wipe out the Australian population,” Harrison said.

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