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A Green Bay, Wisconsin resident was surprised to find a 7-foot jungle python (aka carpet python) from Australia slithering up underneath their car and making itself comfortable in the engine well.
The snake is actually fortunate that it was seen slithering into the engine. Otherwise, the driver might have driven more erratically.
As things played out, the driver was able to ascertain that the snake was in a safe spot to be driven to the nearby Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary where it was rescued from the engine. And the story was picked up by NBC 26:
Given that this was in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the origin of the snake always seemed obvious. The jungle python species is native to Australia, according to UPI News, and the only way it would ever wind up in Green Bay was as a pet. Frankly, any snake of this size found in Green Bay should immediately be assumed to be a pet.
Determining that the 7ft python was a pet should have, theoretically, led to getting the snake safely home. Green Bay requires an exotic pet permit for this species so it should have been easy to track down the owner.
Alas, there aren’t any residents in the area who have an exotic pet permit for this species. So it was either an illegally owned jungle python (most likely option) or lost by someone driving through Green Bay (less likely).
Here is a full list of snakes found in Wisconsin. Of the 22 snake species found in Wisconsin, only 2 are poisonous: the Timber Rattlesnake (rare) and the Eastern Massasauga (endangered).