PM offers help in snake hunt

by BRYAN WALKER

GOVERNMENT will be providing assistance to snake expert Damon Corrie to capture an 18-foot Burmese python and other snakes on the loose in Barbados.

The herpetoculturalist said he wrote Prime Minister Owen Arthur last Thursday seeking help, after sending correspondence to the Ministry of Defence and Security since last September for permission to use the army's night-vision equipment without reply.

In last week's letter, a copy of which was obtained by the DAILY NATION, Corrie asked the Prime Minister for the assistance "of at least one armed police or Defence Force tracker . . . [and] night vision equipment" to track down the reptiles.

Pledge of assistance

He said that Thursday afternoon, Arthur called and pledged to provide the necessary assistance, adding that the relevant people would be getting in contact with him "soon".

Corrie, who has over 20 years' experience in dealing with reptiles, has been searching for the Burmese python, last spotted in Joe's River, St Joseph, last October, for nearly two years. He suspected there were at least ten other snakes on the loose, including other pythons and boa constrictors, all smuggled into the island back in the early 1990s.

Meanwhile, there has been another sighting of a snake on the border of St Peter and St James.

Last Friday, Gregory Best, in his 20s, told the DAILY NATION that on Good Friday morning, some time between 5:45 a.m. and 6 a.m., while retrieving his kite which had been staked out overnight, he made a startling discovery.

On his way back up a gully in Rock Dundo, St James, which also ran through parts of St Peter, he saw a "fat" snake slithering through the bush.

"It was tan, brownish yellow in colour, with 'nuff' white in it. It was moving slowly from behind a tree and between some bushes," Best said.

Hasty exit

While making a hasty exit, he also noticed "about three to four feet was moving, and the rest of it that was curled up was more than three to four feet". He added it was about ten to 12 feet in diameter.

Best said children in the area had previously reported seeing the same snake, but adults had brushed this aside. "Only when I see it and tell them, then everybody start getting frighten."

On Saturday, Corrie and a NATION team went to that gully to snare the snake. While the morning search turned up empty-handed, Corrie said he found several circular impressions in the ground showing where the snake would have coiled up and slept.

He said he strongly believed it was an albino python about ten feet long, similar in size to that which left tracks behind in a St Peter woman's patio earlier this month. Interestingly, that house was only about 200 yards away from the gully in St James.

Corrie said snakes of that size and larger could survive in the bush for 20 years, or more. However, he re-emphasised that such snakes were not poisonous and generally did not attack humans.

Residents in another St Peter district also reported seeing a snake, but a search there last Saturday also proved futile.

Anyone seeing snakes or their tracks can contact Corrie at 231-2975 or 228-0227.

* bryanwalker
@nationnews.com