12-foot Burmese python escapes aquarium exhibit in Louisiana mall. But she’s ‘friendly’
UPDATE: Blue Zoo said Thursday morning on Facebook that the snake was found “safe and healthy.” The aquarium said Wednesday it had brought in “multiple snake experts” and an animal tracker to help look for the python. The original story is below.
A 12-foot Burmese python escaped from its enclosure in an aquarium at a Louisiana mall Tuesday.
But the aquarium says the snake, named Cara, is friendly.
The St. George Fire Department was called around 10:20 a.m. to assist animal control with finding the python, which had escaped its enclosure at the Blue Zoo aquarium in the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, Eldon Ledoux, a fire department spokesperson, told McClatchy News.
An aquarium spokesperson told McClatchy News that Cara was still on the loose as of Tuesday afternoon but that staff believes she is “fully within the aquarium.”
The aquarium voluntarily closed for the day Tuesday for Cara’s safety, but the mall remains open.
Aquarium staff members are still unsure how Cara managed to slither her way out of her enclosure.
But the aquarium’s spokesperson says she’s a non-venomous, friendly snake who the staff handles frequently and who interacts with guests as part of a snake education show.
Cara is a rescue, and aquarium staff are unsure how old she is. But at 12 feet long, the aquarium’s spokesperson says she isn’t fully grown.
Burmese pythons can get up to 26 feet long and can weigh more than 200 pounds, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Their “native range” reaches from “from India to lower China, throughout the Malay Peninsula and on some islands in the East Indies,” the commission says.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 12:56 PM with the headline "12-foot Burmese python escapes aquarium exhibit in Louisiana mall. But she’s ‘friendly’."
