Victoria’s snake in a drain has been captured in an underground trap and is in custody.
“He is on his way to the pound, or probably settled in there now, and recovering from the incident and probably looking for a new owner at some point,” Mayor Lisa Helps said Thursday evening.
“He’s certainly famous.”
The slippery fugitive, believed to be a harmless corn snake, is being housed at the Victoria Animal Control Services’ pound, 564 David St.
Photos from the city show the snake being held by municipal underground utilities workers. It has a patterned body and is several feet long, but no precise measurement was provided.
The hunt began after crews put a video camera into a section of pipe at Quadra Street and Balmoral Road on Aug. 17.
They were checking for a possible soft spot or sinkhole. Instead, the camera revealed a snake.
Municipal crews and animal control specialists had been trying since then to capture it.
Sandbags were put down to block its escape and dead mice were put out as bait.
The snake shed its skin this week and subsequently devoured two dead mice, but stayed put in the drain.
Crews had set a trap in the storm drain, Helps said.
She is not sure, but expects the trap would have been baited with a dead mouse, given that the snake snacked on mice previously.
City crews figure the snake is likely an escaped pet. It is not known how long it was in the pipe.
There’s been a great deal of community interest in the snake. “I think for parents and kids, it was a real conversational piece, an educational opportunity,” Helps said.
“Who knows how many snakes are in drains, in how many cities, across the country?
“We just happened to find our snake in a drain,” she said.
