A five-metre exotic snake found on the Gold Coast is likely to have been imported illegally to Australia, according to a snake catcher.
Tony Harrison was on Monday called to a house in Oxenford, where the 80-kilogram albino Burmese python had slithered onto a woman's doorstep.
"This poor little old lady answered the front door of her house and there's this snake sitting on her doorstep," he said.
"There is a black market here in Australia; lots of people breed and sell stuff that's not supposed to be here.
"I'd say that somebody's just had it for a pet for years and it's just pushed its way out of its enclosure."
'Big slug' in poor condition
Mr Harrison said while the large snake was heavy, it behaved placidly, making it easy to catch.
"Because it's a big slug it's hard to pick up, though ... it took two of us.
"It's an old snake. It's got scars on it ... it's missing its tail, so it's had a rough life."
But Mr Harrison said the snake, which was an invasive species, could pose a threat to neighbourhood pets and native wildlife.
"Snakes can eat three times their girth, and this snake is as thick as your thigh, so a staffy would be an easy feed.
"They eat waterbirds ... and the equivalent here would be wallabies."
Snake put down
A spokesperson for Biosecurity Queensland said officers have euthanased the python.
"Burmese pythons are powerful animals, capable of inflicting severe bites and/or causing death by constriction," the spokesperson said.
"The Burmese python is well known to be highly invasive, particularly in Florida, where a large number of pythons can now be found in the Florida Everglades.
"Due to their size, many escape or are released into the wild, and become invasive species that devastate the environment."
Under Queensland laws, the maximum fine for keeping a prohibited reptile like a Burmese python is $133,450.
Mr Harrison said the snake could do serious damage to native ecosystems.
"Australia is very, very strict with introducing invasive species, because we don't want the ecosystem to get messed up," he said.
He said, while it was a shame the animal was euthanased, it was not appropriate to keep it as a pet.
"They are my favourite snake — they are big, they're beautiful-looking … an incredibly beautiful snake."
