Imagine you go to get a banana and come across an exotic venomous snake hiding among the fruit. That's exactly what happened at a grocery store recently.
Somehow the reptile from Ecuador made its way to a New Hampshire grocery store. That's when it made itself at home among the fruit waiting for an unsuspecting shopper. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department wrote on Facebook that it responded to a call about a venomous snake. It was spotted in a shipment of bananas.
It was an ornate cat-eye snake. The species is considered mildly venomous and native to Ecuador. Conservation officers managed to save the reptile and relocated it to the Rainforest Reptile Shows in Massachusetts.
They wrote, "Another great example of the diversity of being a NH Conservation Officer. On Saturday, February 15th, a Conservation Officer responded to a local grocery store in southern NH after employees discovered an unwanted hitchhiker in a shipment of bananas."
Venomous Snake Hiding
They continued, "The hitchhiker turned out to be an Ornate Cat-eyed Snake, a mildly venomous snake species native to Ecuador. The snake was unharmed and rehomed with Rainforest Reptile Shows Inc. Thank you to the alert employees and the great and always helpful staff at Rainforest Reptile Shows Inc."
The ornate cat-eye snake is also called the Leptodeira ornata. It's a fairly common species in Ecuador but a rarity here in the States. The reptile makes itself at home in a dry forest climate. So it probably wouldn't have done well in a super market.
So how did it end up at the store? Well, that's less of a mystery. Ecuador is one of the top exporters of bananas. It pushed 6.7 million tons in 2023. So it's likely the venomous snake just hitched a ride with the shipment.
The venomous snake drew a lot of attention. One person wrote, "Poor little thing! Good job someone did the right reporting and thanks NHFG for getting it to the right facility!!"
Another commented, "Just a baby! Good job everyone saving it." Another wrote, "Thank you for being there for her!!!"
Yet another wrote, "Send the little one home! Yikes!" And another wrote, "Nope. Nope. Nooooooope."
