TAMPA, Florida — A routine dog walk turned into a Tampa man seeing something he’d never seen in the city before – a big snake that clearly didn’t belong.
“I'm walking with my two dogs and I stopped when I noticed something out of the ordinary," Dr. David Hernandez recalled. "I mean, it was so well camouflaged.”
Hernandez captured video of what appeared to be a python in his neighborhood on Coolidge Avenue in South Tampa.
“I could see easily at least three and a half feet of snake and the rest of it was in the shade of the bushes and completely motionless,” Hernandez described. “When I did get close, it hissed at me.”
Hernandez, a Florida native, recognized it was some kind of python. He and his wife reported it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
10 Tampa Bay got ahold of FWC and their experts identified the snake as a ball python. It’s not one of the giant Burmese ones that have invaded South Florida, but it is nonnative and not meant to be out in the wild.
Hernandez’s experience is a good reminder to do what he did and report any non-native species you come across.
“People can report sightings of Burmese pythons, other nonnative snakes, tegus, and monitor lizards to the FWC’s Invasive Species Reporting Hotline at 888-IVE-GOT1," said Hailee Seely, public information director for the FWC’s southwest region. "Reports of other nonnative species can be made online at IveGot1.org or by using the IveGot1 app on your cell phone.
"A photo and exact location helps with proper identification of the species and any necessary response efforts."
Recent reports have shown ball and Burmese python discoveries in the Tampa Bay Area, despite the latter's prevalence in the southern part of the state and Everglades.
The FWC says if a python is on private land, the homeowner has the right to humanely kill the nonnative reptile.
“Certainly there are mechanisms in place to report these events and hopefully, they're very rare,” Hernandez said.
FWC adds ball pythons are not a prohibited species and this could be an escaped or released pet.
"If members of the public have a nonnative pet they can no longer care for, don’t let it loose and instead, contact the FWC’s Exotic Pet Amnesty Program to rehome nonnative pets," Seely said.