Residents of Sydney’s eastern suburbs are scouring the streets to rescue two pet pythons allegedly dumped in a “fit of anger” by an ex-boyfriend.
The 2.5-metre snakes, named Bagel and Mango, were allegedly tossed on a main street in Coogee several days ago and have been on the loose ever since.
The owner of the snakes took to local Facebook groups offering a reward for her beloved pets, which she said were tame and only posed a threat to animals the size of a large rat.
“My shitty ex threw a tantrum when I broke up with him and dumped my lovely hand-reared pet pythons out in a fit of anger,” she wrote.
“He dumped them on Mount Street, Coogee, the snakes are domesticated and won’t survive in the wild.
“I’m really scared for their safety, so please if anyone has seen them let me know.”
The woman wrote the snakes were about 2.5 metres long, “quite sweet and don’t bite”.
“The brown one is called Bagel and the albino is called Mango,” she wrote.
Local residents offered leads, with multiple people confirming Mango had been spotted in a bush on Mount Street on Saturday. “I seen it about 12am,” one user wrote.
“I went out with a couple of sacks and a torch tonight but no luck,” another user wrote on Thursday evening.
Other residents expressed a healthy dose of concern over the risk the snakes may pose to the community, including one woman with a “small dog in my yard”.
“On behalf of the neighbourhood … please for the love of god someone find these snakes,” one user wrote, with another adding “I know you said they don’t bite, but I think I’d still faint if I see them near me”.
New South Wales police said it had not received a report related to the incident.
The Australian Snake Catchers professional reptile handler Sean Cade said the safety of the snakes was of a greater concern than the threat to the community.
Based on the description, Cade said the snakes sounded like Darwin carpet pythons, native to warmer climates through the Kimberley region of Western Australia and top end of the Northern Territory.
“They should not be out there in the environment, because they’re captive animals, they don’t survive well because they’re not from here,” he said.
“The temperature’s not right, they don’t know how to find food, so it’s quite a precarious situation for the snakes more so than the community.”
This is not the first time snakes have turned up in unexpected parts of Sydney, but they have tended to roam further west.
In September, an AFLW game at Blacktown International Sports park was delayed after a snake was spotted sunning itself in the grass.
Four years earlier, residents of a western Sydney housing estate were on alert for days for a boa constrictor thought to be roaming free in the area after the discovery of a huge, “freshly shed” snake skin.
Cade said pet snakes tended to be “more cranky” than wild ones as they were outside their native environment.
“Most wildlife diamond pythons in Sydney are quite relaxed,” he said. “All have bad days [but] these snakes have no idea where they’re supposed to be … and they get snappy without food.”
He predicted the snakes would stay in a relatively contained geographic area of about a 500 square metre radius, unless they could not find food or water sources.
“What tends to happen with escaped pets is they go in circles, they’ve been in their enclosure and they’re used to going round and round because that’s all they can do,” he said.
“But it would be fairly unusual for them to be together … to try to find each other again is virtually impossible.”
As the clock ticks on, Cade said the snakes were in a race against time to survive against the natural, and urban, elements.
“They’ll go for a little while, a couple of months, but every day is worse if they don’t eat,” he said.
“If this thing goes to a back yard with guinea pigs, the kids will be pretty disappointed.”
