Employees of an O‘ahu property enhancement retail outlet received a slithery shock from a pallet hitchhiker previously this week.
According to a news release from the state Section of Agriculture, a stay snake was captured late Wednesday night, July 6, at the Kapolei Household Depot. Honolulu law enforcement officers, responding to a 911 contact from shop employees at about 11 p.m., applied a bucket to seize the snake, which was spotted on a pallet in a shipping container of mixed merchandise.
The snake was taken to the Kapolei Law enforcement Station, in which agricultural inspectors from the DOA took custody Thursday early morning, July 7. Agriculture inspectors from the DOA Plant Quarantine Department also went to the retail store to study the space and knowledgeable the retail store to contact the DOA if any other hitchhiking animals were spotted.
The snake, identified by reptile specialists as a non-venomous juvenile gopher snake, actions about 21 inches extensive. Gopher snakes are located in North The usa and can mature up to about 7 toes. Their diet plan is made up of compact rodents, young rabbits, lizards, birds and their eggs. The snakes kill their prey by constriction and suffocation.
Snakes are unlawful to possess in Hawai‘i. They have no normal predators and pose a critical threat to the state’s ecosystem.
The DOA reminds the general public that those with illegal animals can convert them in below the state’s Amnesty Software to any DOA workplace, the Honolulu Zoo, the Pana‘ewa Zoo in Hilo or any humane modern society, no questions asked and no fines assessed. The maximum penalty underneath condition regulation for possession and/or transporting unlawful animals is a Course C felony, punishable by up to a $200,000 fantastic and up to a few yrs in prison.
Any person with information and facts about unlawful animals need to simply call the statewide toll-no cost Pest Hotline at 808-643-PEST (7378). Sightings or captures of unlawful animals or invasive species ought to also be documented to the hotline.