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Python turns up Agriculture inspector Tim Yamaki was shocked to find a ball python snake coiled around his pair of metal tongs Sunday when he attempted to remove fruit from an amnesty bin at Honolulu Airport.
in airport plant bin
An inspector was shocked
to find the nonvenomous snakeBy Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com"It was a surprise because I've never seen one before, and I never expected to see one in there," said Yamaki, an 11-year employee for the airport's Plant Quarantine Office.
This is the first animal ever to be found in any of the eight amnesty bins at the airport, according to state agriculture officials.
Lisa Nakayama, a land vertebrate animal specialist with the Agriculture Department, said the python will be kept at the Plantation Quarantine Branch in Honolulu until it is transported to the mainland.
Officials believe the foot-long snake was dropped into an amnesty bin near Baggage Claim Area D in an airline sickness bag and somehow freed itself. Yamaki said a torn airline bag was found in the bin.
The inspector discovered the ball python about 8 p.m. Sunday during a routine inspection. Yamaki placed the snake in a plastic bag and then later into a container and carried it to the airport Plant Quarantine Office. It was later taken to the main quarantine station in Honolulu.
Ball pythons are nonvenomous and are kept as pets on the mainland.
Those possessing illegal animals could face fines of up to $200,000 and up to three years in jail. Owners of illegal pets are encouraged to turn them in under the department's Amnesty Program.
Anyone with information of illegal animals in Hawaii is asked to call the Department of Agriculture's PEST HOTLINE at 586-7378.