An SFU student has found one of the pythons on Burnaby Mountain, and she’s planning to take it to a rescue group in Surrey.
Marissa Bowsfield, an SFU psychology student, contacted the NOW, saying she found a ball python Tuesday evening, around 7:30 p.m. near Horizons Restaurant on one of the main trails.
“I feel happy I found the snake but also disappointed that people are leaving them around when they shouldn’t be,” she said. “I like animals, and I knew it wouldn’t survive on its own.”
Bowsfield heard news stories, first reported in the NOW, about a python loose on Burnaby Mountain.
She found the snake on one of the trails, and picked it up with her bare hands and carried it home, about 15 minutes away in the UniverCity area.
“It wrapped itself around my wrist and seemed very content to come along with me,” she said. “It’s totally docile.”
Bowsfield said she wasn’t afraid.
“I like snakes. If it had been tarantulas on the loose, it would have been a totally different story, but snakes I’m cool with,” she said.
Bowsfield kept it at home in a big Tupperware container, and she’s keeping it warm with hot water bottles. She plans to take the snake to Urban Safari Rescue Society in South Surrey.
It’s not the first snake she’s found on the mountain, either. On July 19, she found a foot-long ball python by chance and also took it to the rescue group.
Gary Oliver, founder of the Urban Safari Rescue Society, took in the young snake and will keep it.
“He’s doing really well; he’s healthy,” Oliver said, estimating the snake was about four or five months old.
Bowsfield’s capture brings the total number of snakes found on Burnaby Mountain to four, three of which were babies or juveniles, which suggests someone dumped a group of breeding snakes. On Monday, city parks staff spotted a ball python on the mountain, as first reported in the Burnaby NOW.
City staff spotted this snake on Monday on Burnaby Mountain. - contributed photo
“Sounds like someone had them hatched their eggs and that, and for some reason didn’t want them and just threw them out in the bush,” Oliver said. “I don’t think they would have bred in the wild. I believe they were bred in captivity.”
However, Val Lofvendahl, founder of Reptile Rescue, Adoption and Education Society, analyzed the NOW’s photos and the picture snapped by city staff from Monday’s python sighting by city staff, and she’s convinced they are two different snakes.
“Snakes don’t have the same markings. It’s like our fingerprints,” she said. “I’m positive it’s not the same one. The markings are different.”
Snake sightings should be reported to the SPCA; call 604-291-7201.
To see a video of reporter Jennifer Moreau handling the snake go to the Burnaby NOW's Facebook page.
Burnaby Mountain snake sightings:
(Source: Reptile Rescue)
July 11: Someone finds a python on Burnaby Mountain and notifies Reptile Rescue. The person decides to keep the snake as a pet. The snake is either an adult or a young adult; definitely not a hatchling, according to Lofvendahl.
July 15: Lofvendahl goes to Burnaby Mountain to look for the snake reported on July 9. She never finds it but finds one baby, barely alive, and a second baby that has been dead for a while. Both are hatchlings, about 12 to 14 inches long. Lofvendahl estimates they are only a few weeks old.
July 19: SFU student Marissa Bowsfield comes across a ball python on Burnaby Mountain. It's about a foot long, and she takes it to Urban Safari Rescue Society in South Surrey.
July 28: Reptile Rescue receives another report from an SFU staffer who finds another ball python on Burnaby Mountain but doesn't pick it up. It looked alive but didn’t move and was sunning itself in a clearing between the trees. (This one was quite thin, says Lofvendahl, and if it wasn't found, it's probably dead by now.)
Aug. 10: Burnaby city parks staff spot a python on Burnaby Mountain, but the snake eludes them. (The NOW reports the story, sparking a frenzy of news coverage.)
Aug. 11: Bowsfield hears the news about the recent snake sighting and goes to Burnaby Mountain, looking for the python. She finds one, but Lofvendahl suspects it's a different snake from the Aug. 10 sighting, as the markings appear different.
