A sewer snake that is becoming a bit of a celebrity in Victoria showed no signs of abandoning its newfound home Friday, as a third day of efforts to retrieve the reptile failed.
In anticipation of a snake show, a small crowd gathered at Quadra Street and Balmoral Road outside First Metropolitan United Church on Friday for the big reveal.
City crews and animal-control experts carefully opened a manhole cover as people readied their cameras.
It was hoped that two dead mice placed there as bait the previous day would have attracted the snake into a cardboard tube.
It was not to be.
The suspected corn snake, curled up in a 15-centimetre-wide pipe, had ignored the free meal and cardboard-tube accommodation.
“The snake is still in the same location, hasn’t eaten the food or been drawn to the warmth provided for it,” said city clerk Chris Coates.
It was back to the drawing board for city crews and animal-control officers, who consulted with counterparts in the Lower Mainland on next steps.
“What the thinking is now … is that because the snake’s eyes are milky and cloudy is that it is about ready to molt,” Coates said.
When a snake is preparing to shed its skin, it becomes lethargic. That process can take up to a week.
“In the meantime, staff will monitor what’s happening down there,” Coates said.
If the molt happens, the expectation is that afterward the snake will become active again and ripe for snaring safely.
“Most important in this whole thing is that the snake is safe,” Coates said.
“We don’t want to take more aggressive means or dig up the street. It seems the snake is fairly tucked away and secure to the degree that is possible.”
The saga started Wednesday when city crews put a video camera inside a four-to-five-metre-long section of pipe at Quadra and Balmoral going toward Mason Street. They were looking for a possible soft spot or sinkhole.
But instead of photographing images of sludge or crumbling pipe, the camera captured the face of a snake.
Mike Ippen, manager of utility operations, said given their limited experience with snakes, city crews first thought it was a boa constrictor or python. The camera images made the reptile look bigger than it was.
Thursday afternoon, after two failed attempts to bait and lure the snake, animal-control experts identified the reptile as likely being a corn snake. It is not venomous. It is believed to be an escaped pet.
The city said excavation is an option but an undesirable one.
The abandoned section of pipe where the snake rests has been blocked at its far end with a sandbag. It is open on the manhole-cover end. The city does not believe the snake can escape through the finger-size opening in the manhole cover. The bait has been removed.
The city suspects the snake escaped or was abandoned and slithered into a catch basin or drain near a house.
