On the plus side, the albino python is the first to have been discovered in Albufeira but at two metres long the live reptile has caused concern to residents and to the authorities who have no clue as to how the snake ended up in a council waste bin.
A resident of Salgados, Albufeira, found the live Albino Burmese Python in the bin and sensibly contacted the GNR whose officers admitted they were “surprised by its size.”
Staff from the Albufeira GNR’s Environmental Protection Centre collected the python and decided that Olhão could have it.
The snake was transported with a record degree of care to the Institute for Nature Conservation in the Ria Formosa park where it will be looked after and its fate decided.
Unsurprisingly, the Centre says this is the first ‘molurus bivittatus albino’ to have been found in Albufeira but in fact it is a tiddler - the adults normally grow to 3.7 metres and weigh in at 80 kilos on a diet of rats, rabbits, birds, and small mammals.
The snake uses its sharp rearward-pointing teeth to seize its prey, then wraps its body around the victim, at the same time contracting its muscles, killing the prey by constriction.
The record for a Burmese python is a whopping 5.74 metres, nearly 19 foot. Take care when next dumping your rubbish...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAa9dE4RUN8
