‘Big Mama,’ a 6-foot snake, shows up under bedside table, Georgia sheriff says

The sight of a 6-foot long snake may provoke fear in many, but a Georgia animal enforcement officer who found one in a home recently nicknamed the “docile and friendly” reptile “Big Mama,” a Georgia sheriff’s office said.

The officer, Rebecca Galeazzo, went to the home after a family reported that children saw the snake inside a bedroom, according to an Aug. 10 post on the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.

Bibb County is about 95 miles southeast of Atlanta.

When Galeazzo got there, she couldn’t find the “sneaky snake,” so she left, the post says.

Later that evening, the children spotted it under a bedside table and Galeazzo returned.

Galeazzo found Big Mama, a non-venomous eastern rat snake, “which turned out to be docile and friendly,” and returned it to the wild unharmed, the post says.

Adult rat snakes are typically 3-5 feet in length, but can grow to over 6 feet, according to the University of Georgia Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. They are found throughout the southeast, as well as in most eastern and midwestern states. The constrictors eat mostly mice, rats, squirrels, birds and bird eggs.

Rat snakes are protected in Georgia, the laboratory says.

This story was originally published August 10, 2022 at 6:11 PM with the headline "‘Big Mama,’ a 6-foot snake, shows up under bedside table, Georgia sheriff says."