Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire
This footage shows cops measuring a giant 44-lb python which is believed to have nested in a spa’s ceiling boards for a decade before finally falling through due to its weight.
According to the day spa’s owner, the animal, which appears to be a Burmese python (Python bivittatus), was first spotted in the foot treatment business in 2009 but has been too elusive to catch.
It is believed to have survived by hunting rats inside an adjoining hotel, growing to some 4 metres (14 feet) in length and weighing 20 kilogrammes (44 lbs).
Authorities in Chancheng District in Foshan, a city in South China’s Guangdong Province, were called to the spa by its distressed owner after staff members found the python hiding underneath a reclining chair on 12th November.
The owner said his employees went into the empty room to investigate after hearing a “loud crash”, and arrived to find the corner of the plasterboard ceiling having been ripped open.
Officer Chen Gang, with the Lanshi Police Station, was first on the scene. He and his partner found four others from a nearby hotel to help catch the snake.
Chen said: “At first there were just two of us. It was clear we didn’t have enough people.
“We found two staff members from a nearby hotel, and then two security guards.”
Chen said the six of them turned off the lights and covered the snake with a blanket before holding it down together.
One of them grabbed the python’s head and the rest were able to lift it out of the room and put it in a sack.
The day spa’s owner said the elusive python was first spotted a decade earlier, and again during renovation workers three ago when workmen noticed it in the ceiling boards.
However, on both occasions, they waited for the snake to reappear but never saw it again.
The owner said the spa’s ceilings are not fully closed.
There are ventilation passages and even openings leading to adjoining businesses, including the hotel where the python’s main rodent food source lives in large numbers.
The python has been handed to experts at Zhongshan Park Zoo who are expected to release it back into the wild in the coming weeks.
The zoo’s resident snake expert, Mr Qiao, told local media: “It’s unlikely that any eggs will be found in the ceiling.
“These snakes usually live in the mountains, and there was only one snake here, so it had no mate.
“In the mountains, it would usually eat rabbits and chickens, but there were enough rats in the hotel to keep it alive.”
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