Mysterious 8-foot yellow snake reported by hiker in Tennessee. How did it get there?
.png "A team from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, visited the Normandy Reservoir on Oct. 2 and found an unusual-looking Burmese python, officials said.")
It’s easy to imagine things in the Tennessee foothills, but reports of a large, bright yellow snake roaming the Normandy Reservoir were not imaginary, officials say.
A team from the University of the South in Sewanee visited the site Oct. 2 and found an unusual-looking, non-native Burmese python in the woods.
Not only was it big at 8 feet, but it also was leucistic, meaning the skin lacked pigmentation standard to the species.
Pythons are not native to the United States, so nothing about the find was natural.
“A person local to the area spotted the snake while using the Normandy Lake Hiking Access,” Kevin Fouts, a wildlife manager with the university’s Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability, told McClatchy News in an email.
“I knew my students would love the excitement of wrangling a large colorful snake, but of course wish that was not necessary.”
He suspects it was a pet that was freed or escaped at the reservoir, which is about a 75-mile drive southeast from Nashville.
Burmese pythons are an invasive species in the U.S. and have become a plague in South Florida. However, they can’t survive the frigid winters in Tennessee, experts say. That means the python would have died in the coming weeks, Fouts said.
“The animal passed a meal two days after initially being observed, suggesting it may have been fed just before release,” Fouts said.
“We’ve decided to post notifications of the find around the reservoir trails in case it was an accidental escape or released as a result of a domestic disagreement.”
As of Oct. 7, the snake was living at the Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability while the “team explores options for rehoming it.”
“We have taken to calling the snake ‘Puddin’ for the time being (short for ‘nanner puddin’),” Fouts said.
Normandy Reservoir covers 3,048 acres in south-central Tennessee and is owned by The Tennessee Valley Authority.
This story was originally published October 7, 2024 at 1:04 PM with the headline "Mysterious 8-foot yellow snake reported by hiker in Tennessee. How did it get there?."