HILO — A boa constrictor was picked up Sunday in Keaau by animal control officers.
“We did pick up one yesterday,” confirmed Adam Pereira, Hawaii Island Humane Society’s Keaau shelter manager, on Monday afternoon.
“Police called us,” he said. “They came across it.”
According to Pereira, who was not on the call, the snake was at a residence. He couldn’t say how big the reptile was.
It was handed over to the state departments of Agriculture and Land Natural Resources, he said.
Neither Donna Whitaker, executive director of HIHS, nor a spokesperson for the DOA could immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Boa constrictors are found in tropical North, Central and South America, as well as on some Caribbean islands. The reptiles can reach between 3 and 13 feet in length and up to 60 pounds.
In June, another live snake, identified at the time as a non-venomous ball python, was captured near the landfill in Hilo.
Snakes have no natural predators in Hawaii and pose a serious threat to the state’s environment, the DOA said at that time. Many species also prey on birds and their eggs, increasing the threat to endangered native birds. Large snakes also can be a danger to the public and small pets.