Just before departing Australia, after visiting her daughter, Scottish local Maria Boxall thought she had seen a small snake in her room. She assumed the snake had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared and paid no attention to it. However, on arriving at her home in Scotland, she opened her suitcase to find the serpent curled up in her shoe.
Initially, Boxall thought her family was playing a joke, but when she touched the snake to test her theory, it moved. The snake had also shed its skin in her shoe on the journey back to Scotland. A relative of Boxall’s quickly contained the snake before the Scottish SPCA arrived to take the reptile into quarantine.
The snake was identified as a spotted python, a non-venomous snake species. The animal will remain in quarantine for roughly six months and will be given to a zoo after passing the quarantine requirements.
It is not completely unheard of for small insects and reptiles to wander into suitcases and hitch rides across the globe; just a few months ago, a South African millipede travelled in a couple’s suitcase all the way to America.
Image source: Instagram @stv.news
