Staff at a golf course in England have found another boa constrictor less than a week after the first.
According to BBC News, the latest snake turned up at Blackwell Grange Golf Club in Darlington, near the spot where another boa had been discovered days before. The back-to-back finds have fueled worries that more abandoned pet snakes could be on the course.
What happened?
Speaking to BBC News, Blackwell Grange Golf Club professional Aaron Cox said the second sighting happened on June 20, when the snake was noticed in long grass near the area where the first boa had been found a week earlier.
The reptile was more than 6 feet long, Cox said, and he placed it in a cardboard box before taking it to Coast to Coast Exotics, the local exotic animal shop.
"Other people didn't want to go near it but it was standard for me," Cox said.
"The one on Saturday I had to pick up and he had a swipe at me and you could hear the snake hissing at me from the box," he said.
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He said employees at the club believe the boas were deliberately left there by owners who no longer wanted them.
"The consensus of the staff is that they are being dumped here after they have grown too long," he said. "There's a pond on the course where they are being put and then they are slithering up into the long grass."
Why does it matter?
Because boa constrictors are not native to England, staff believe the animals were likely pets that someone released after deciding not to keep them.
The discovery also left golf course workers responsible for handling a large constrictor near a recreational area, while local authorities reportedly declined to intervene because the snake was found on private property.
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BBC News said the two snakes were diagnosed with inclusion body disease, a fatal condition in boas and pythons. One was dead within two hours of arriving at a foster home, and the other was put down by a veterinarian.
What are people saying?
Cox said the snake's presence alarmed his coworkers, who did not want to go near it and feared more animals could still be hidden in the rough.
BBC News reported that the golf club has since asked Darlington Borough Council for help preventing more incidents, but the authority said the matter was on private land and was "not a council issue."
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