Police Probe Elusive Snake's 2nd Disappearance from Texas Exhibit
All possible leads reportedly are being pursued in a venomous snake’s second disappearance in a month from a Moody Gardens exhibit in Galveston, Texas.
The missing snake, a 10-inch bush viper, went missing last month, too, and was subsequently found on a screen next to a light fixture outside the theme park exhibit. Two other bush vipers and three larger Gaboon vipers remain in the exhibit. “The three Gaboon vipers, the largest of which is 6 feet long and 8 inches in diameter, were sent to a veterinarian to be X-rayed in case one of them swallowed the smaller snake,” reports the Houston Chronicle.
However, it appears that the lock installed on the exhibit after the snake’s previous disappearance may have been tampered with, according to the newspaper. Galveston police have been asked to investigate.
A Moody Gardens spokeswoman describes a snake-swallowing scenario as very unlikely, but said officials wanted to pursue every possible lead. At last report, the elusive reptile seemed to have been stolen, rather than to have slipped away on its own, according to another Houston Chronicle article.
Although bush vipers are poisonous, healthy adults rarely die from being bitten.
