Snake ‘wouldn’t survive winter’
A snake that slithered out of the dashboard of a ute in Te Anau wouldn’t have hatched in the vehicle and would be unlikely to survive a New Zealand winter, the Ministry for Primary Industries says.
On Sunday, Te Anau man Jimmy Calder was driving the Nissan Navara, brought into the country from Australia recently, when the snake suddenly popped out of the dashboard.
Calder took the vehicle to Te Anau police station where police ensured the animal was secured until MPI staff arrived to fumigate the ute.
MPI said the snake was identified as a common tree snake, dendrelaphis punctulatus, which is harmless to humans.
They were solitary animals and a herpetologist had said it was very unlikely there would have been a group of snakes in the vehicle, an MPI spokeswoman said.
Because of the timing of the breeding season, there could not have been a clutch of eggs in the vehicle that the snake hatched from. The species lives in tropical and subtropical parts of Australia, and was unlikely to be able to survive a New Zealand winter.
The spokeswoman said she understood the vehicle came into the country three months ago from Brisbane.
After the vehicle was fumigated and the snake euthanised, a snake handler would retrieve the animal and check the rest of the vehicle.
An investigation would be carried out into how the snake got into New Zealand, and as part of that MPI would determine if any changes were needed to the rules for importing vehicles.
‘‘Imported vehicles arriving from Australia undergo intensive inspection at the border.
‘‘We fumigate if there’s evidence of contamination,’’ the spokeswoman said.
From time to time snakes were found at the border. Most were dead and were not usually venomous. In 2015, MPI said 10 snakes or snake skins were found at the border between February 2011 and October 2014. Most were barely alive. If a skin was found, it raised the question of what had happened to the snake.
Huntsman spiders from Australia also turn up from time to time, including one that scurried out of boxes of clothes from Australia in a Christchurch sportswear store in early 2017.
The Biosecurity NZ website said anyone importing vehicles, machinery, or equipment, including tyres, had to ensure the goods were clean and met other requirements.