GEORGE TOWN: There are plenty of large snakes dwelling in all city sewers, simply because there are many rats there, the staple of most snakes.
These “city” snakes are perfectly happy to live unseen, but after a long night of rain, the sewers become too cold for these reptiles and it is not uncommon to see them appear in search of warmth in the morning sunlight, right in the heart of bustling cities.
It is why the Civil Defence Force here received a call at 8am yesterday when a rare albino python was found slithering about in the open at a construction site in Jalan Macalister.
“Snakes are cold-blooded. They do not generate their own body heat so they depend on the warmth of the environment to maintain an optimum body temperature.
“After a night-long rain, the sewers can become so cold that the snakes cannot find enough warmth. It slows down their metabolism to the point that their bodies cannot even digest the food they eat.
“So, in the morning, you might find them coming out into the open to catch the morning sun in quiet places in the city,” said Cedric Chin, a snake catcher, adding that since albino pythons were specially bred, this one could have been an escaped pet.
The albino python caught measured 4.2m long, almost the height of two typical bedroom doorways.
Northeast District Civil Defence Force operations officer Capt Muhammad Aizat Abd Ghani said the department received a distress call from a supervisor at the construction site at about 8am.
“Construction workers saw it slithering in the open when they clocked in for work,” he said.
He added that it was initially hard for three of his personnel to bag the snake because it tried to slither into a hole, but was caught after several construction workers helped to catch it.
