Snake training put to good use in Tauranga
This Pacific ground boa's unscheduled ride to New
Zealand got further than the Port of Tauranga.
Photo: Whitaker Consultants Ltd.
A serpent stowaway discovered recently at the Port of Tauranga gave one MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) Quarantine Inspector a chance to put his snake-handling skills into practice.
The unwanted visitor – a Pacific ground boa (Candoia carinata paulsoni) – was found in a crevice on the underside of a shipping container, transported empty from Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu on the merchant vessel Sofrana Surville.
MAFBNZ Quarantine Inspectors were called after the sighting at a container repair and storage facility on 1 May.
"At first, we thought it had been squashed by the container," says Alan Kirkpatrick, team leader for MAFBNZ Quarantine Inspectors at the Port of Tauranga.
"But once Tim gave it a quick poke with his snake catching hook it started to wriggle."
Trained in snake capture and equipped with his snake-catcher's tool bag, MAFBNZ Quarantine Inspector Tim Coley was ready to deal with the reptilian incursion.
"It was just a matter of holding the catch bag underneath and flicking it in there, basically," says Tim.
Utilising skills learnt during a snake-catcher's training course in Australia, which he has attended twice, Tim was able to quickly and safely capture the snake to be euthanased.
"You wouldn't want to just jump in there without knowing what you're doing – you definitely wouldn't want to grab it with your hand like they do on TV – that's one thing we're told not to do," says Tim.
The snake catcher's course, run by Living With Wildlife in Adelaide, South Australia, has been attended biennially by Quarantine Inspectors from around New Zealand in recent years (see Biosecurity 78:2, September 2007).
"We're now going to make it every year – because we've got nothing to practise on here," says Tim.
Although he has been on callouts for suspected snakes before, this was Tim's first snake catch in New Zealand. After Tim had bagged the snake, MAFBNZ Quarantine Inspectors investigated the area for others, "but it was pretty clear it was just a one-off," Alan says.
The euthanased snake was sent to Motueka-based herpetological experts, Whitaker Consultants Ltd, for identification and to ensure it was harbouring no ectoparasites. They identified the snake as a Candoia carinata paulsoni, a subspecies of the non-venomous Pacific ground boa, a young male, 55cm long and not dangerous to humans.
The Pacific ground boa is found in eastern parts of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The Sofrana Surville began its journey in New Zealand. Before arriving in Vanuatu, the ship called at ports in Queensland, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, then returned to Tauranga direct from Vanuatu. According to Whitaker Consultants' report, it is most likely the snake came aboard the vessel at one of the ports visited in Papua New Guinea or the Solomon Islands, then moved between the containers on board.
"It could have just been stuck in a container somewhere, having a nice little sleep, and it got picked up by a forklift then chucked onto a ship and next thing you know it's in New Zealand. It's pretty much just a hitchhiker," says Alan.
"Sometimes you get lizards, sometimes you get ants, and this time it just happened to be a snake."
- Exotic disease and pest hotline: 0800 80 99 66
Return to:
Page last updated: 11 July 2008