A passing motorist found some unusual roadkill on Gill Street Wednesday morning – a ball python.
The exotic snake native to Africa had been hit by a car, according to the man who picked it up.
“It may have come out of a back yard,” the man, who didn’t want to be identified, said. “I hadn’t heard of anything like that living in Marion County. It may have been a pet that got out or was turned loose.”
Ball pythons are popular pets and do not reach the huge sizes of the invasive Burmese pythons that are a nuisance in Florida because they kill off small mammals. This one measured nearly 50 inches in length.
“It was still warm and flexible when I found it,” the man said. “It may have just gotten run over when I found it.”
The snake was reported to Columbia police, and its finder plans to harvest the skin for an as-yet-undetermined project, perhaps a wallet.
Pictured Above: A driver picked up this ball python after it was hit on Gill Street Wednesday morning and brought it by the newspaper. He has plans to use the skin to make something. | Photo by Mark Rogers
