One Oklahoma trailer park has a rather large and slithery problem on its hands. Officials and residents are searching for a 13-foot python that has been eating small animals around the area—including people's cats.
The python is different than the invasive species in Florida that we hear about so often; it's an albino reticulated python with a distinctive yellow color. Reticulated pythons are thinner and grow much longer than Burmese pythons. Large ones can truly be giants, like the 23-foot one that swallowed a woman in Indonesia while she was gardening.
The Oklahoma trailer park's unique nope rope has been living and eating near the trailer park for months, wreaking havoc on the local wildlife. It's caused so many problems that local officials called in wildlife control specialist Trevor Bounds with Red Beard Wildlife Control to hunt down and eliminate the snake.
A Massive Problem on Their Hands
Burntwood Community
Officials believe the snake used to be someone's pet before it escaped or was let loose earlier in the summer. Reticulated pythons are native to South Asia, making it highly unlikely that it showed up in Oklahoma, of all places, on its own.
Bounds theorized that the snake's cat-heavy diet—not to mention an "unlimited" supply of local wildlife like rodents—allowed it to double in size in just a few months.
"That thing has been eating opossums, foot-long rats, and cats," Bounds told Fox 8. "The mouth on that thing is the size of your foot, and when it opens up, you're going to be able to fit something pretty large in there."
"Like Mike Tyson's Bicep"
Bounds told News9 it's the largest snake he's ever been hired to capture. If not caught, the snake could get much, much larger. "They can get up to twenty-four feet if you let them, maybe longer. The body on this snake is like Mike Tyson's bicep but 13 feet long," he told Fox8.
At this size, the snake presents a danger to Burntwood residents and the kids who attend a nearby school. Generally, pythons will leave people alone, Bounds said, unless you try to pick them up.
"It's been out there for five or six months, so at this point, it is un-handleable, it's not going to be chill," said Bounds. "But it's not the bite, it's the wrapping up. You know, the constricting."
Pinning Down the Snake's Location
Locating the snake has been no easy feat. Bounds estimated it would take up to two weeks to capture it. He is one week into the task. "We were using our thermal camera last week to find it, but because it is cold-blooded, we had to just look for an outline of him," said Bounds.
He discovered the snake had made a den underneath a specific home in the park. The home is long, but the crawl space is only about a foot and a half wide. There's no way anyone can crawl under there to wrangle the reptile. But when Bounds was able to look inside the space, he discovered larger animal carcasses, pointing to a cat-based diet.
"I can imagine that each one of those cats put up a nasty fight. So, when it's been attacked that many times, the nice, non-aggressive pet snake we once knew is no more. This thing is dangerous now," Bounds told Fox 8.
Bounds has set a trap around the home and is keeping the snake's lair under 24-hour surveillance. Once his phone alerts him, Bound says he will be "able to get out there and take care of this thing." Not surprisingly, the trailer park is "very adamant about getting this python out." Hopefully, Bounds will be able to do just that—and soon.
READ MORE: Watch: 16-Foot Python Slithers Across House Roof in Unreal Footage
