Boelen's Python-Snake on a Plane! --By Matt

Some of you who hate snakes, will also hate this story and all the pictures. This is the story of our Boelen's Python. While at work one day, one of our electricians, a Papua New Guinean named Brian, came rushing up to me with a picture on his phone of a snake I've been hoping to see for a long time. He said that he found these guys walking down the road with this huge snake. Shirking our work duties, we rushed off together to go find them. The snake is a rarely-seen Boelen's Python. It only lives on this island, in the highlands like where we are. They don't live outside of Papua New Guinea and the other end of our island Papua, Indonesia. This is its home, however most people who live here have not seen this kind of snake, and no one I've talked to has seen one this big. In fact, it is the most protected reptile in PNG!

We encountered the snake in the road near our center, however these men caught it in the jungle a couple hour's walk away.

The guys told me they were going to eat it and have a feast so I made them an offer and then let my wife know that we had a new pet! She loves surprises!

The following day, Kurt Metzger helped me get it out for the first time. It's good to have an extra pair of hands in case the snake becomes aggressive, but it turned out to be a rather calm snake.

Two months and 4 live rats later, it became apparent that this snake wouldn't eat in this environment. Maybe the cage was too small. This rat, which we meant to serve as dinner, started sleeping in the snake's coils.  The two became roomies and I even started feeding the rat to keep it alive. The rat had to be removed. I had a problem. I then heard about a Nature Park in the capital, Port Moresby. They were excited about the snake when I contacted them, and we made plans to make an exchange. The snake would fly in one of our Kodiak planes.

We generated a lot of excitement with the aviation staff.

Last hugs from the "Ukarumpa Strangler".  Pilot John Mork was not concerned about this odd passenger. Of course it flew in a bag, inside a box.  The snake now resides at the Port Moresby Nature Park. This is a professionally-run and well-maintained park.

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