Bob Mount: I've seen my share of snakes over the years

During my career as a herpetologist I was frequently called by someone having a snake problem. Following are some of the more interesting.

“Dr. Mount, there’s a copperhead in my commode. Would you please come get it?” I drove to the man’s residence, and there was a snake in his commode. It was a harmless gray rat snake, and I gently removed it and secured it in a pillowcase. Most of the unwanted snakes I have rescued were gray rat snakes, and several have been “commode snakes.”

I was called one evening about a large snake on the lawn of an Auburn residence. I responded and rescued an eight-foot-long Burmese python, the second I’d rescued. The first was a six-footer reported by a trailer park resident.

A resident of Cary Woods called to report an exceptionally large snake consuming a house cat in his neighborhood. I was unable to find the snake, but a week later the Auburn Police Department called to report a large snake with a “possum in its mouth” close to where the cat-eating snake was reportedly seen. I couldn’t find the snake, but two officers who saw it described it. One said, “That snake was as long as this patrol car.”

From evidence provided by the witnesses, I am reasonably confident that the snake was a Burmese python.

Those are my python stories and one of several about “commode snakes.” But the following is perhaps my most interesting snake story. About 6 one morning I received a call from someone in Auburn’s Animal Control Department.

“Dr. Mount, would you be available to identify a snake for us?”

I said I’d be in my office in Funchess Hall by eight o’clock. They brought me the snake, secured in a cloth bag. It was a boa constrictor, about three or four feet long. Boa constrictors have differing personalities; some are ill-tempered and inclined to bite while others are docile and don’t object to being handled. I discerned that this individual was one of the latter. I removed it from the sack and it gently coiled around my arm.

“It’s a boa constrictor,” I said. “Where did you get it?”

“We received a call about three o’clock this morning from a woman who reported that a snake was in her bed. We responded and captured the snake.” I asked if they had any idea how a boa wound up in the bed with an unsuspecting woman. They said the woman had only recently moved into the apartment, and their guess was that the escaped snake had belonged to the previous owner.

Burmese pythons and numerous other tropical reptilian species now inhabit southern Florida, and research is underway to determine if they are able to endure the winters in areas farther north.

If research suggests that tropical snakes are able to live year-round in southeastern states, maybe residents of the region will pay more attention to Al Gore’s warnings about the consequences of global warming and climate change.

Bob Mount is emeritus professor of zoology and entomology at Auburn University and writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News.