ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Update: No, pythons released in St. Augustine are not likely to survive or breed in the wild
A St. Augustine neighborhood is on edge. Neighbors living in Prairie Lakes say they've caught 22 ball pythons roaming around the neighborhood in July.
Experts say these snakes aren't wild and are considered invasive species, yet still has neighbors worried.
"We have found 22 in a matter of four weeks," neighbor Vincent Myers said. "We found them out on the main road, under the hood of a car, people will drive at nighttime after the rain and they will be crossing the road."
Myers says most of the snakes seen, are about 3 to 4-feet long and he's caught most of them.
"I've got an old paint roller on a grade stick with some tape and then I got a tote that I've make shifted into a snake tote," Myers said.
Once Myers catches a ball python, Vet Tech Sky Bennett and Jacksonville Herpetological Society President Lissa O'Rourke have partnered to capture and rehabilitate them if needed.
"I'll take them into the vet, get them looked at, make sure they don't need any medical attention until I get them all adopted out," Vet Tech Sky Bennett said.
O'Rourke says these aren't snakes you'd find in the wild or at a pet store.
"These ball pythons are very specific morphs of ball pythons, ones that would have been bred by somebody. Several of them were albinos and those are not made to live out in the environment. They're susceptible to the sun, they can't camouflage. We have found most of the albino ones had some puncture wounds, probably attacked by cats or raccoons or something else," O'Rourke said.
"There have been solid white ones that have been found. We have some candy corn looking ones," Bennett added.
O'Rourke says ball pythons can't survive in the Northeast Florida environment.
"Northeast Florida is too cold for them in the winter time to live up here," O'Rourke said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says a law enforcement officer visited the neighborhood, but has not identified where the snakes came from. FWC says the ball pythons likely escaped or are released pets.
"A lot of the snakes, their body conditions are pretty thick and chunky snakes so, they were being fed well wherever they came from," Bennett said.
In a statement, FWC says:
"If members of the public have a nonnative pet, whether kept legally or illegally, that they can no longer care for, they can be surrendered through the FWC’s Exotic Pet Amnesty Program with qualified adopters."
More information on the FWC’s Exotic Pet Amnesty Program can be found here.
"It is animal cruelty to release these animals into the wild because the likelihood of them surviving is not high so, you're basically giving the animal a death sentence," Isaac Scott with CritterPro Inc. said.
Myers and Bennett say they think there are more snakes out there.
"Don't kill them, call somebody that can grab them," Bennett said. "Their lives matter just as much. Just because they are scary, doesn't mean they don't deserve to live."
O'Rourke says she and Bennett are working together to adopt out the pythons. Click here to access the adoption form.
"We are kind of pre-screening people to make sure they're going to the right homes to prevent something like this from happening again," O'Rourke said.
FWC says if you have a non-native species, not to let it loose and if you come across one, to report it to its Invasive Species Hotline at 888-Ive-Got1 (483-4681), along with providing an exact location and photos. Sightings of other non-native species can be reported online at IveGot1.org or by using the free IvetGot1 app.
