Jungle snakes should stay in the jungle, right?
Three alleged wildlife smugglers in Australia seem to disagree. They are going to court after authorities seized eight tropical snakes from their vehicle in December 2024, according to the Cairns Post.
Someone sent a tip that snakes were being taken from a Queensland national park, and rangers with the State's Parks and Wildlife Service responded.
When they searched the vehicle of the group in question, they found six green tree pythons and two brown tree snakes stowed away.
The green tree python is a protected species in the country. In other words, they aren't growing on trees — though they do spend a lot of time in them — and people trying to illegally capture them threatens their population.
The reason for poaching animals is usually to sell them for a profit. Interested buyers fuel the industry by wanting to keep a rare or unique species as a pet or use some piece of it as food, medicine, or furniture.
However, the fines for violating protected species laws can be hundreds of thousands of dollars or multiple years in prison.
"Significant penalties apply for unlawfully taking a snake from the wild," QPWS compliance manager Mike Devery affirmed at the time of the incident, the Cairns Post reported.
That may seem extreme, but removing a key species from its local habitat can seriously endanger its population and cause negative ripple effects across the entire ecosystem.
In fact, most of the snakes that are removed from the wild will die during transport or in captivity, Devery explained.
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Save $1,000 this year 💸 "This is why we have zero tolerance for the removal of any native animal from the wild, and we will take strong action against anyone found in possession … without a permit," he added.
Luckily, this case had a happier ending. Park service rangers and Indigenous Kuuku Ya'u rangers were able to return the eight stolen snakes to the wild shortly after they were found.
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