Snakes on a reign of terror in Bangkok
•Panarat Chaiyaboon was using the toilet in her downstairs bathroom in July when she felt a sharp bite on her thigh. She jumped up to see a scene straight out of a nightmare: a 2.5-metre python emerging from her toilet.
She rushed to the hospital, bleeding heavily, and still bears the marks from eight tooth punctures that were more than a centimetre deep.
That snake was captured, but a week later, Panarat’s 15- year- old daughter found a second python in the same toilet. The daughter was so shaken, she went to stay with relatives.
It could be argued that snakes have always owned this corner of Thailand, and that the people of Bangkok are merely borrowing it from them. The main airport, Suvarnabhumi, was built in a place called Cobra Swamp, and the city itself took shape on the Chao Phraya River delta — a marshy reptile paradise.
But this year, the Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department, which removes snakes f rom homes, has been busier than ever.
As of Monday, the department had received 31,801 calls this year for help in removing snakes. That is more calls than for all of last year ( 29,919), and more than three times the number in 2012 (10,492).
On one recent day, the fire department received 173 snake invasion calls, versus five fire alarms.
“There’s no way we could survive if there were more fires than snakes,” said Prayul Krongyos, the department’s deputy director.
The department’s figures don’t even include the many thousands of snakes that are killed or removed by residents on their own or taken from homes by volunteer handlers.
Most of the snakes rescued by f i refighters are taken to a wildlife centre and released in the wild.
Prayul and the department are nowhere near panic. One reason for the rising numbers is growing public awareness that firefighters can help remove snakes and other animals.
It has also been a wet year, even by Bangkok standards. Heavy rains bring a surge in the number of snakes seeking refuge indoors. Flooding can turn city streets into snake highways as the creatures are forced from their hiding places and swim for higher ground.
And as the city of more than 8.2 million people continues to expand into formerly wild lands, the number of snake encounters is rising.
“When people build houses in their habitat, of course they will seek a dry spot in people’s houses because they can’t go anywhere else,” Prayul said.
PANARAT’S DAUGHTER FOUND A SECOND PYTHON IN THE SAME TOILET.