KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/25 September) – A still unidentified tricycle driver rescued a wounded baby python near the foothills of Mount Apo but later sold it to a pet shop here saying he could not afford to feed it.
Ryan Cabante, manger of Pet Shop Nemo, said the 1.5 feet long python needs treatment and extra care.
Cabante said a driver who hails from a village near the foot of Mount Apo last week turned over the python to them.
It is not certain how the python got wounded but it appears like there was an attempt to hack it.
The driver told Cabante that while he wanted to take care of the snake he has no money to buy its food. He sold the snake for P800.
According to the Brittanica Concise Encyclopedia, python is “any of 28 species (family Pythonidae, sometimes a subfamily of Boidae) of sluggish, docile, nonvenomous snakes found in tropical and temperate regions.”
Pythons feed on “birds and mammals, killing them by constriction.”
“Most pythons are found near water; some are arboreal. Unlike boas, pythons lay eggs (15 – 100, depending on body size). The Asian reticulated python (Python reticulatus) may be the world’s longest snake (the anaconda is heavier); specimens over 30 ft (9 m) long have been recorded,” it added.
Cabante said the store owner has no plans of selling the snake.
He said the owner placed the python in one of the cages and wants to nurse it until it’s healed.
The python they’re holding right now, he said, might also grow as long as six to seven feet. Cabante said. When that happens, he said, they might transfer the snake to a bigger cage.
At present, they’re feeding the injured python mice and lizards.
“We just want the snake healed so we’re doing everything to save it,” said Cabante. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)
