Large-scale surprise
SCOTT Davies almost jumped out of his skin when he made his discovery.
The Amalgamated Pest Control Innisfail owner was inspecting the timber at Violets and Lace Nursery when he found the longest snake skin he had ever seen.
The story of how it got there is equal parts heartwarming and skin-crawling.
Nursery owner and former Cairns Post gardening columnist Yvonne Cunningham had put Monty the amethystine python in the ceiling more than four decades ago.
She and her husband bought the property on the Johnstone River in 1969.
At the time, it was the perfect spot for white-tailed rats.
“At night we would hear the pitter-patter on the roof and it would wake me up half a dozen times,” Mrs Cunningham said.
“We were always having problems with the electricity, and an electrician said one of these days we were going to have a fire in the roof.
“Those bloody rats were gnawing on all the wiring.”
She had to wait until her husband was away to take the necessary action.
“My husband was an Irishman,” she explained. “He thought St Peter didn’t do a good enough job and should have gone offshore to get rid of all the snakes in the world.”
Opportunity came knocking when Mrs Cunningham found a smallish python resting in the chicken coop, with a belly full of freshly hatched chicks.
Clasping an old potato sack, she managed the wrangle the bloated and docile serpent and pop him in the attic.
The sound of rats ceased within 24 hours.
“I never had to call the electrician, Boydy Fischer, again,” she said.
About a decade after Monty took up his new abode, he picked up a lady friend named Monica, mating for life.
“Subsequently, the offspring (collectively named ‘M&Ms’) have spread throughout the property,” Mrs Cunningham said.
Monty is now longer than 6m and has led a king’s life up in the ceiling.
The only inside area they inhabit is a storeroom with an opening to the roof cavity.
Monica chose it as her nursery and can often be seen coiled up on the top shelf with a clutch of eggs while Monty keeps vigilant watch.
A NORTH Queensland expert suggests a sinister motive is behind the spate of crocodile decapitations in recent months.
The discovery of a headless 2.7m animal in a dry creek bed near Karumba in the Gulf country is the third decapitated croc to be discovered in Far North Queensland since August.
Zoologist at Charles Darwin University Dr Adam Britton speculated the protected species is being illegally targeted by big-game trophy hunters.
Crocodiles are a protected species under Nature Conservation Act.
Dr Britton discounted the idea the killings were in retaliation to attacks and said hunters stocking the trophy cabinet was a more plausible explanation.
“They will either take the tail and they will use that for the meat or they will take the head and use that for the skull,” he said.
Dr Britton said a large knife or chainsaw could be used to remove the head of the animal.
“With their head missing like that … it is someone who has been poaching the crocodiles and illegally killing them.
“They remove their head which they then take home and presumably then try and prepare the skull.”
The Department of Environment and Science suggested the animal could have been run over as there was no evidence of bullet holes in the carcass.
Dr Britton said it was “almost impossible” to sell a croc skull without proper Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) certification.
“If you want to trade in a species listed on CITIES you need to have a permit,” he said.
John Cash from Cash City Cairns pawnbrokers, said he had received a call from someone trying to sell croc parts.
“We asked, ‘can you verify where it came from’ and they said ‘no’ so we told them we don’t deal in them,” he said.
Dr Britton said the killing and decapitation of crocs did happen but described the practice as occurring at a “low level”.
“But it is a concern because they are breaking the law,” he said. “It is illegal to interfere with crocodiles in the wild in Queensland and that obviously includes killing them.”
In August, a 2.5m croc was found missing its head near Mount Isa and a decapitated 4m croc at Herbert River has also been reported.